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OONTHIBUTIONS 



TO TIIR 



HISTORY 



LACKA¥AINA VALLEY 



BY 



H. HOLLISTEE, M.D. 



NEW YORK : 
W. H. TINSON, PRINTER ,^ BTEREOTYPEK, 

43 & 45 OENTUK HTKEKT. 



r, 



1^7 

. UilU 



Entkkro Rooor.liiig to Act of Coiigrnse, in the ymir 1851, l-y 

II. HO LLISTER, M. P. , 

III flio Clerk's Ollice of llio Distiwl Court of llio Uuitcd SUitcs, for the Soutliern District of Now York. 



-^4"^^ Bytran.te 

5 JelSOT 



I- 10^^"^ 



CONTENTS 



Preface, 

Contributions, . . . • 
Indian Names, .... 
Lackawanna Valley and River, . 
Ancient Course of the Susquehanna, 
Minerals and Mining, . 
Formation of Coal, 
Organic Remains in Coal Strata, 
Indian Tribes and History, . 
Capousc Meadow, 

War Tath, 

Indian Spring, .... 

Indian Relics and Fortificatioufl, 

An Indian Legend, 

Salt Spring, .... 

Rattlesnakes, .... 

Original English Charter of Lands embracing the Lackawanna 

Valley, .... 

William Pcnn's Clahn, 



PAGK 

. 7 



9 

10 
10 
12 
15 
11 
19 
21 
2*7 
30 
31 
82 
40 
41 
45 

49 

51 



IV CONTENTS. 

PAoa 
Purchase of tlie Indians by the Susquehanna Company, . . .52 

Purchase by the Delaware Company, 53 

First Settlement upon the Delaware Purchase, 54 

First Settlement upon the Susquehanna Purchase, . . . .55 

Pennymite Settlement, 58 

Trenton Decree, 59 

First Settlement in the Lackawanna Yalley, 61 

Isaac Tripp, 69 

Early Emigration, '76 

List of Settlers, between 1Y69 and 111&, 11 

James Leggett, . ,18 

First Koad from Pittston to the Delaware, 80 

Military Organization, 82 

Religion, Temperance, and Still-Houses, 83 

Mills and Forges, 91 

Old Forge and Doctor Smith, 92 

Settlement of Slocum Hollow (now Scranton), . . . .96 

The Slocums, 100 

The History of Scranton, 105 

Mail Operations Forty-five Years ago, 136 

"Wyoming Massacre, 188 

The Signal Tree, . . .159 

Settlement around Providence Borough, 161 

The Griffins, 166 

Blakely, 1*70 

A Singular Character, .Ill 

Yankee Way of pulling a Tooth, 175 

Dunniore, ....•••••••• 177 

Thomas Smith, . . • • . • . . . . . .180 



CONTENTS. V 

PAGE 

Scott, the Ninirod, . . . . 181 

Early History of Drinker's Beech (Covington), 183 

The French Canadian, 189 

The Squire of the Shades of Death, 195 

Settlement of Abington, 207 

The Valley Fifty Years ago, 212 

Elder John Miller, 212 

General History, 226 

Formation of Townships by Pennsylvania, 231 

Ancient Division of the same Territory by Connecticut Authority, . 232 

Elder William Bishop, 232 

Proprietor's School Fund, 237 

Settlement of Jefferson, 240 

Chase by a Panther, 243 

Carbondale, 246 

Life Under Ground— Falling of Mines, 248 

Paths and Roads, 252 

Journey from Connecticut to Pittston — Mrs. Von Storch, . . . 255 

Little Meadows, 257 

Hurricane in Providence, 261 

Boating on the Lackawanna, 264 

Rise of Methodism in the Valley, 269 

Smelling Hell, 273 

Greenfield and Scott, 275 

Chas. H, Silkman, 276 

Coal Lands Fifty Years ago, 278 

The Discovery and Introduction into Use of Anthracite Coal, . .279 
"Wm. Wurts — Explorations in the Coal Fields of the Lackawanna — 

History of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, . . 286 



VI CONTENTS. 

PAOB 

Pennsylvania Coal Company, 299 

Trip over the Pennsylvania Coal Company's Road, .... 303 
Ilistorical Summary of the Susquehanna and Delaware Canal and 
Railroad ("The Drinker Road")— Leggett's Gap Railroad— The 
Delaware and Cobb's Gap Railroad Company, now the Delaware, 

Lackawanna and Western Railroad, 312 

The Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad, 321 

Lackawanna and Lanesborough Railroad, 324 

List of Coal Operators at, or preparing for the work this Year (IBS'?), 

in the Northern Coal Basin, 326 



PREFACE 



In presenting to the public these " Contributions," it seems 
proper to state that the collection of the embodied facts was 
more the result of the love possessed by the writer for such 
incidents and history, than the hope of either a pecuniary 
reward or a literary reputation. 

Becoming familiar with a few features in the history of 
the Lackawanna Valley, the writer was induced by the sohcita- 
tion of his friends to put them into a shape whereby their pub- 
lication might possibly awaken an interest, or perhaps elicit 
new and more connected material from a region where nothing 
yet had been done in the way of gathering its local history. 

From the absence of a proper and continued record — from 
indistinct and often conflicting memories — and from the death 
of all who were familiar with its earliest settlement, it is very 
probable that events narrated are sometimes given in an im- 
perfect, and even in an inaccurate manner. It would not be 
surprising if such was the fact ; but the reader must bear in 
mind that not only the personal, but the general history 



Vlll PREFACE. 

recorded bcre was written while the author was engaged in o. 
large practice, and harassed by all the continual anxieties 
occurring in one of the most exhausting and thankless profes- 
sions in the country. 

While the author asks no indulgence from this circumstance, 
yet he apprehends that a practice of twelve years, with its too 
often accompanying annoyances — compelled to view human 
nature in every possible light, and encounter it in its most 
humiliating aspect — eminently fits him to bear the murmurs of 
those who suppose that a volume can be as easily written as 
read. 

None of the Sketches are arranged in chronological order ; 
many are necessarily brief, meagre and unsatisfactory, owing to 
the gi'eat dearth of material ; while some, it is possible, do 
better justice to the subject. 

It would have given pleasure to the writer, to have presented 
a genealogical view of the original families in the valley; but as 
this contemplated feature would necessarily have enlarged the 
volume beyond its intended limits, without adding much to its 
general interest, it was abandoned. 

The obligations of the writer are due to all his friends, who 
have, by their liberal subscriptions to the volume, manifested 
such an interest in its welfare. 

H. HOLLISTER. 

Providence, Pa. 



THE 



LACKA¥A:^I(1 yallet, 



The Lackawanna Yalley — a valley so identified 
with that of its sister, Wyoming, in its early settle- 
ment and privations ; included in the satne purchase, 
and subject to the same organic laws of the colony, as 
a considerable portion of this originally was ; and in a 
geographical or commercial position being more impor- 
tant and accessible than that classic soil — it seems to 
many has been passed over with apparent neglect by 
those to whom the Wyoming Yalley is indebted for its 
written history. 

To contribute a few facts, reminiscences, and incidents 
in its local history, gathered from sources entitled to 
the greatest credence, is the purpose of the crude notes 
now presented ; and, if their perusal should prove either 
satisfactory, instructive, or entertaining to anybody, 
ample will be the reward of the writer. 

That many of the conclusions and facts, arrived at 
honestly, and as honestly presented, should differ with 

1* 9 



10 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

those pre-conceived by otiiers, will not be denied ; bnt 
their publication is intended to elicit a local interest in 
a region where the materials tor its history are scanty 
and obscure, and where nothing has been done in the 
way of gathering them. 



INDIAN NAMES. 

The Indians, ever having an extraordinary apprecia- 
tion of the beauties of Nature, have given to their 
rivers and lakes, their mountains and valleys, names 
really poetic and expressive. " Lackawanna " is a cor- 
ruption of the Indian ''Leehaw-ha7ina ;''^ Leehaw — the 
prefix — signifies the forks^ or point of intersection ; 
Hanna, as in Susque-hanna, Toby-hanna, Rappa-han- 
nock, Tunk-hanna, and Tunk-hannock, implies, in Indian 
language, a stream of water. Hence the name of our 
valley Leehaw-hanna or Lackawanna, the meeting of two 
streams — a name highly suggestive and sweet-sounding. 



LACKAWANNA RIVER AND VALLEY. 

This stream rises princi2:)ally in Susquehanna county, 
but one considerable branch comes from the same 
marshy region in Preston, Wayne county, which gives 
birth to the Starucca, Lackawaxen and Equinnunk, and 
after pursuing a rapid and often a serpentine course, 
runs for a distance of about eighty miles before it inter- 
sects the Susquehanna River at Pittston. 

Along its banks, the scenery is at times singularly 
fine and beautiful, and presents to the eye every variety 



LACKAWANNA KIVER AND VALLEY. 11 

of smooth water, pool and rapids. Here its banks are 
bold and pleasing with tlie picturesqne, and there opens 
the alluvial meadow, where the wheat, ripe for the 
cradle, and the luxuriant cornfield, yellow with the 
pumpkin, attest how fertile is the soiL 

In Pittston, Lackawanna, Providence and Blakely 
Townships more especially, lay many farms of great 
natural beauty, which, would many of the farmers pos- 
sessing them exhibit more skill instead of liberal means, 
the Genesee farms would hardly equal. 

The Lackawanna Yalley, watered ^principally by the 
river of the same name, lies west of New York about 
138 miles, where reposes the most northerly of the only 
like deposits of anthracite coal known in America. It 
is about thirty miles in length, and runs south and 
southwest, and, considered in its topographical charac- 
ter, is nothing less than the continuation, or rather the 
right northern arm of the classic and celebrated valley 
of Wyoming, Kimmed upon either side by a range of 
mountains called the Moosic — from the vast herd of the 
moose once sweeping along the pines — it lies like a huge 
trough, tapering off at its upper and lesser extremity to 
a mere sloping, plain ravine. A few miles above Car- 
bondale, the valley itself, somewhat narrowed before, 
is more successfully interrupted by a succession of 
boulders, or hills, facetiously called " Hog's Back," 
from their stiff bristling appearance. 

ISTow and then the mountain, diversified by rudely 
broken gaps or depressions scooped from the sides, 
crowds upon the river in rugged, broken masses, alter- 
nating with steep slopes and dense timber-land, giving 
to the waters of the stream many sudden and frequent 
windings. 



12 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

The sliores of the Lackawanna are rich in many inter- 
esting and salient views, and, with the bold chain of 
hills and mountain slopes, and the towns and villages 
painted along their sides, forms a long and variegated 
landscape. 

Along the central and lower portion, coal of the 
highest quality lies in careless profusion, interstratiiied 
in many places with iron ores of the most desirable and 
productive character. 



ANCIENT COUESE OF THE SUSQUEHANNA. 

The Kittatinny, or blue ridge of mountain, which 
skirts along Pennsylvania and Virginia, is probably one 
of the most even ranges in the world. At its base it 
rarely exceeds a mile, but its summit, clothed with rank 
shrubbery and tree-tops, looms up against the sky, as if 
to get the latest glimpse of dying sunset. At some 
period in the world's history, this ridge seems to have 
been the margin of a vast lake, or estuary, into which 
poured the waters of the Chemung, Chenango, Dela- 
ware and Susquehanna, and over mountain and valley 
around us, swept one common wave. Yolcanic agency, 
in its strange submarine operations, probably broke the 
various gaps in the mountain, and as the liberated 
waters hurried from the lake into the sea, the geological 
features then effaced or effected must ever remain to 
man a mere matter of geological conjecture. And 
whether this great abyss boiled with a heat far beyond 
the temperature of white-hot iron from the volcanic fur- 
naces below, over the seams of liquid coal, or at what 
period these eruptive changes took place, lies so far 



ANCIENT COURSE OF THE SUSQUEHANNA. 13 

beyond the earliest times of any written history, that all 
attemj)ted explanation perplexes more than it enlightens. 

Contemporaneous with these phenomena, or perhaps in 
more pre-Adamic times, it is highly probable that the 
topographical character of the Lackawanna Yalley was 
suddenly altered. The peculiar geological conformation 
of the country along the Lackawanna; the character, 
form, and direction of the Alleghany range rising along 
southern 'New York ; its mean altitude near the Great 
Bend of the Susquehanna River, being but little, if any, 
greater than at Tioga (or Ta-hi-o-ga) Point ; the compa- 
rative freshness and shape of rocks along both the Sus- 
quehanna and the Lackawanna ; with the general 
appearance of the country along each stream, afford no 
little evidence to this conclusion. 

Instead of breaking off so abruptly from its apparent 
course at this point, and cautiously feeling its way along 
the mountain border until it reaches Tioga Point, then 
forcing itself through a passage choleric and cramped, 
until, with all its singular boldness and beauty, it opens 
upon the Wyoming Yalley, it probably struck boldly 
down into a channel now partly closed by some superior 
upheaval or disturbance in the geological world, and 
entered the valley below us, where now the Lackawanna 
mingles silently wuth the dark waters of the Susque- 
hanna. 

Trace up the Susquehanna, step by step, to where its 
two lakes, six and nine miles long, give it origin, or 
down through its unnatural passage to Wyoming, and 
not a single spar of coal is visible ; go up the Lacka- 
wanna to the indicated point, and more than midway 
from the mouth of the stream, coal deposits, both grand 
and profuse in their character, are seen : all forcing the 



14 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

conclusion upon the mind, that whatever local causes or 
convulsions once effected the mineralogical features 
around us, the sound of the ocean itself, or that of a 
much larger stream than the Lackawanna, gave music 
to our valley once. 

'No less than five veins of coal have been washed 
away from the eastern side of the Lackawanna, in 
Providence, by the force of water, and their crushed 
and blackened deposit is found in the alluvial banks a 
great distance below. A portion of the village of 
Scranton stands upon such a singular deposit. That 
various portions of the earth's surface have been subject 
to vast changes in elevations, depressions, temperature, 
and topography, and still are being affected thus, there 
can be no reasonable doubt, all confirming .the conclu- 
sions we have advanced. 

By the old Danish chronicles, Greenland was discov- 
ered 975 years ago, and its mountains and its valleys 
being everywhere spread with the richest verdure, gave 
to it then its present name. That it differed essentially 
once from its present glacial aspect, is well shown by 
discoveries made as late as 1850, of trees covered with 
lava, whose trunks measured three feet in diameter, 
where now shrubs not a foot high hardly exist. 

Sweden is supposed by Linnaeus to rise from the lev- 
el of the sea about five feet per year ; the Rocky Moun- 
tains are supposed to have been in shallow water long 
after the formation of the great Appalachian chain, while 
North America itself, having a greater altitude than any 
other portion of the globe, attains with gradual certainty, 
a higher elevation. 

The lower border of the State of Maine abounds in 
tertiary series, and formed at no distant period the bed 



MTNEKALS AND MINING. 15 

of the ocean — the effects of whose waters are everywhere 
visible— /^;y/5 of late date may be traced in its broad 
unduLations and valleys, abonnding in marine fossils and 
seaish remains. New Orleans — with all the lingerino- 
licentionsness of the Oriental world — owes its site to the 
fossiliferous deposits of the great father of waters— the 
Mississippi. The sea, which once gave Yenice her glory 
and her Avealth, is making sad inroads upon its departino- 
glory, while many other portions of the world have not 
apparently changed a hair's breadth since the earliest 
epoch of written Koman History. 



MINERALS AND MINING. 

In its mineralogical character, the Lackawanna Yallej 
is both varied and productive. From side to side it is 
filled with the coal measure— a series of slate and sand- 
stone strata of great depth, interstratified with anthracite 
coal, from a few inches to several feet in depth, as well 
as bog, argillaceous and calcareous ores. Limestone is 
also found in the valley. The mining resources of the 
valley— a valley in comparison and capability behind no 
other portion of the world— can partly be appreciated by 
the fact, that four of the great coal-seams lying in the 
basin, the 7, the 8, the 10 and the 12 foot veins (least 
thickness) furnish a total thickness of 37 feet : affording 
a yield of merchantable coal of 27 feet or 44,000 tons per 
acre. The farthest mines up the valley which are work- 
ed are those at Carbondale ; these are operated by the 
Delaware and Hudson Canal Company ; and the coal, by 
an ingenious application of the power of steam and grav- 
itation, inclined planes and short ascents and descents, is 



16 



LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 



carried over the Moosic moimtain to their canal at 
Honesdale. 

To exhibit in a clear light the remarkable productive- 
ness of the Lackawanna coal-basin, we present the follow- 
ing table, prejDared by Prof. Rogers,* and although it 
was intended to represent the actual thickness of the 
coal-measure in the vicinity of Scranton, it will hold good 
for a great portion of the valley. 



Least Thickness. 


Good Coal. 


Yield of good Coal per Acre. 


5 feet. 

7 " 
10 " 

6 " 
12 *' 

8 " 
6 " 


3 feet. 
4i " 

n " 

3 " 
9 " 
6 " 
4^ " 


4,000 tons. 

7,000 " 
12,000 " 

6,000 " 
15,000 " 
10,000 " 

7,000 " 


54 


37^ 


60,000 



Although it is impossible to estimate with precision 
the total thickness of the coal in the deepest portion of 
the coal-basin until after fuller researches have been 
made by the geologist, it can be seen by this table, that 
the seve7i veins of coal recognized as possessing working 
capacity for profitable mining, produce per acre, the no- 
ble ratio of sixty thousand tons. 

Twelve distinct, separate beds of anthracite, already 
have been enumerated by the geologist along the Lack- 
awanna, besides many sub-divisions of compound beds, 
too thin for present use ; making a total depth of strata 
of 74 feet, or about 40 feet of pure coal for commercial 
purposes. In fact, coal and iron-ore are so extensively 



* Report of the Geology and Mining in the Lackawanna Valley, 



FORMATION OF COAL. IT 

concentrated and associated here, that for centuries yet 
to come, immense and ample will be the supply. About 
25 miles in length may be considered as the extent of 
the Lackawanna coal formation, with an average breadth 
of three or four miles, and running northeast and south- 
west with the general direction of the Appalachian ranges. 



FORMATION OF COAL. 

To the curious in geological matters, coal formation af- 
fords great scope for reflection and theory. Heads emi- 
nent and grey, have supposed the coal-fields once dense- 
ly covered with great and untrimmed forests, which, be- 
ing suddenly submerged by volcanic action, formed a 
vast lake, into which wreck-like rushed mud, stone, sand 
and animals, flooding the vegetable mass, and making 
beds of shale, coal and sand-stone respectively. Difier- 
ent seams or veins of coal are supposed to have been 
formed at different periods but under similar circumstan- 
ces, by being thus alternately elevated or depressed. The 
"progressive character of fossils appearing in the different 
strata, show that they were deposited at different periods : 
and it is more than probable that millions of centuries in- 
tervened between their respective formation. Yegetable 
and organic remains have been found to exist in one 
stratum, which in another, were absent and unknown. 
The contraction of the earth's surface, or this coal-crust 
while cooling, naturally wrinkled it, and thus gave the 
broken and often dipping appearance to many veins of 
coal, termed by geologists an "anticlinal axis." 

In the Igneous rock or that formed by tire, no carbon- 
iferous plants or organic remains are found, nor does the 



IS LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

coal itself contain any perceptible traces of plants unless 
placed under a microscope, although these were contem- 
poraneous w^itli its formation. More than 500 species of 
plants now nearly extinct have been recognized in the 
secondary series of rocks. The fern is found in the great- 
est abundance, while the branching mosses — the cala- 
mi tes — the sigillaria — the cy cades and the palm appear 
in ceaseless profusion. 

Geological examinations made in the Lackawanna coal- 
basin seem to favor the idea that the rocks of this region, 
with their intervening coal-strata, originally level in po- 
sition, were crumpled or folded into their present form 
of alternate basins and ridges by the same tremendous 
convulsions or slow changes which crowded up the Alle- 
ghany ranges ; and that, since then, the action of diluvial 
and atmospheric agencies have worn away the upper or 
coal-bearing strata on most of the high and exposed points 
of the Moosic hills and mountains, leaving them only in the 
troughs or depressions which were sheltered by the moun- 
tain rock and left in the position now found by the miner. 

Coal, destitute of bitumen, or anthracite^ is found in 
Russia, France, Ireland, South Wales, and in a few of the 
United States, and in all the carboniferous series presents 
similar phenomena of fossil. The fern, being identified 
in species and genus to ail those found in coal bottoms, 
it is inferred that the earth in its primitive period w^as in- 
sular, and that the rank vegetable growing then was the 
result of the internal heat of the globe, which at that 
time was too imiform to affect the latitudes. In fact, the 
immense quantity of fossils brought to light along the 
Lackawanna, the remains of that by-gone time, attest 
how numerous the herd, and how hot and fertile the clime 
of that ancient epoch. 



ORGANIC REMAINS IN COAL STRATA. 19 

Many ingenious hypotheses of coal-formation connected 
with the change of climate and temperature thereto, have 
been offered by some, and by others, as often refuted. 
That a large portion of the earth's surface is to-day noise- 
lessly becoming altered, is no more fabulous than changes 
told of in history. In the time of Ovid, the Euxine and 
the Tiber were frozen over, and snow lay in Rome for 
40 days. Even now, on the extreme range of Siberia is 
found evidence of former animal existence now only 
known in the tropics, and, incased in the ice is the ele- 
phant of Lena, preserving the hair, the shin and the 
very flesh, from a remote period down through centu- 
ries to the present day. 

In the preparation of vegetable matter for coal, it is 
probable that heat, pressure and water were the con- 
trolling agents, and that the vast mass of vegetable mat- 
ter was cooked into coal millions of years ago. 



ORGANIC REMAINS IN COAL STRATA. 

Vegetable fossil and organic remains have been found 
in various mines in the valley — more especially in the 
townships of Providence and Carbondale, imbedded 
firmly in the inclosing strata ; preserving all their ori- 
ginal outlines, except the change effected by the sn^^erior 
pressure, from the rounded to the flattened form. 

A large turtle family, fossil sea shells, and fish resem- 
bling the small garpike or common pickerel, in shape 
and size, were found in Providence during the last sum- 
mer, by Captain Martin, while engaged in sinking "a 
shaft to the depth of about 200 feet. These were all in- 
cased in the old carboniferous strata. There is every 



20 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

reason to believe that these fish had once inhabited an 
open space of water, communicating with a larger body, 
or with the ocean itself, which by some means becom- 
ing closed, the pond dried up, and the fish being cov- 
ered to a considerable depth by shale, sand, and stone, 
furnish the specimens of old and young, which have 
been taken from the excavation by the miner with his 
humble drill. 

One large fish, more than a foot in diameter, and six 
feet in length, its fins, scales, and general structure 
yet distinctly seen upon the stereotyping stone, was ex- 
humed from its sepulchre, and, blackened and brain- 
less as it was found, takes us back to a period, unknown 
and remote. This fish was broken while being blasted 
out by the miner, so that the skillful anatomist could 
soon determine, by the nature as well as by the number 
of the exposed vertebra, its true species. 

Kain-marks, foot-prints, stigmaria, and other charac- 
teristics of the coal measure, have been furnished in 
interesting abundance, within a comparative small 
space, during the progress of the excavation here at 
the shaft of the Yan Stork Coal Company. 

In 1831, while Captain Stott was driving a drift in 
the mines at Carbondale for the Delaware and Hudson 
Canal Company, the roof off the mine becoming dislo- 
cated from the parent earth, fell in over a considerable 
surface, furnishing the richest aspect of vegetable and 
organic fossil. Deep in the fractured interstratifying 
stone and slate were imprinted innumerable delicate 
impressions of leaves, flowers, broken limbs ; of the 
palm leaf and the fern, so remarkable in size as to indi- 
cate that the temperature of the earth's surface at the 
period of their growth was far too heated for human 



INDIAN TRIBES AND HISTORY. 21 

life ; fallen trunks and branches of trees, so singularly 
dark and beautiful, that Dagaure could neither imitate 
nor improve ; huge outlines and tracks of the ichthyo- 
sauri — the giant lizard, curious in anatomical structure 
and strength ; snakes, ribbed and rounded, whose like 
is rarely known, and whose analogues are only found 
near the tropics ; a class of amphibians intermediate 
between reptiles and hsli — the hatracian tribe — the 
mammoth frog, were displayed foot-marks of which, 
exhibiting live toes before and four behind, marked their 
presence and passage in other times ; all so distinctly 
and so terribly delineated upon this master-press of na- 
ture, as to convey to the mind some faint idea of the 
monsters once swarming the jungles, and whose courts 
on the low, wet, warm marshes were suddenly ad- 
journed by the great phenomena of coal formation. 

Having thus briefly touched upon a few geological 
facts of more or less local interest to the reader, the 
writer will as briefly notice a little of the Indian his- 
tory, which seems somewhat associated with that of the 
valley. 

The apparently inexhaustible resources of the valley, 
of its hills, and its heart of coal — just touched by the 
drill — holding the certain advantage of their contiguity 
to the great metropolis, will be noticed in the future 
pages of the volume. 



INDIAN TRIBES AND HISTORY. 

Of the Indian tribes, forming the aboriginal inhabi- 
tants of America, but little is known that is at all 
reliable or satisfactory. 



22 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

The smoked and greasy Esquimaux are said to have 
records upon bark of events in their history centuries 
back ; the ancient parchment of the Icelander tells of 
its once warm climate and green plateaux — now glacial 
with ice ; but the poor driven Indians, whose war-whoop 
only echoes along the pine and cypress hammocks of 
Florida, or from the bluffs and gorges of the Rocky 
Mountains, have left behind them only a few legends of 
their ancient history. Important events are said to 
have transpired among them, but their certainty even is 
quite as doubtful as their date. 

Whatever might have been the former character of 
Indian warfare in the earlier history of the valley, or how- 
ever much the infiint settlements then may have suffered 
from the fagot and the knife — when helpless woman- 
hood and the innocence of childhood pleaded alike in 
vain, to savage mercy — it is very certain that in the more 
recent wars the Indians have not been the aggressors. 
We know by living testimony that they have been 
crowded inch by inch southward and westward by the 
incursions and shameful aggressions of the Circassian 
race, until from being a great, proud, and powerful na- 
tion, alike respected and feared for their virtues and 
their power, extending their influence far and wide over 
the western world, they have been reduced to a mere 
handful of warriors, rendered desperate by maltreat- 
ment, and impoverished by misfortune. 

The Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, Oneidas, and 
Mohawks, early banded themselves together for mutual 
protection and formed the dreaded confederacy — The 
Five Nations. Their power was long and absolute. 
Their government — a limited monarchy. This was 
vested in a great chief or king, directed and controlled 



INDIAN TRIBES AND HISTORY. 23 

by a council of braves and aged warriors of the 
nation. 

Heckewelder, who was a missionary among the Dela- 
wares for many years, and who has probably let in more 
light upon Indian history and character than any other 
writer, tells us that when the Dutch first settled N"ew 
York, the power of the Five ISTations was so great that all 
the tribes along the Hudson, Delaware, and Susque- 
hanna were compelled to pay them tribute and lift or 
lay the hatchet at their command. Jefferson says that 
in 1712 the Tuscaroras united with the Iroquois— the 
allies of the French in the early colonial wars— thus 
forming the powerful Six Kations— the Komans of the 
Western World. 

Among the lonely and lovely lakes in the Onondaga 
country — the ancient Ohnaquago~nQ2iY Chenango, 
blazed their great council-fire, while the voices of their 
chiefs, assembled in council, were heard from the quiet 
Manhattan to the distant shores of the great Mississippi. 
Their hunting-grounds lay on every hill, and spread in 
every valley. With a dialect whose strange intonations 
seemed like mere idiotic grunts to the white man, and 
whose tongues, from the parent language, was so diverse, 
corrupt, and confused, that many of the tribes could 
only converse with each other through an interpreter; 
with neither books nor charts, with no history but the 
wigwam's lore, no guide but the moon's grey twilight, 
there was no lake too obscure, no river too distant, nor 
no mountains too rugged and remote, to escape their 
reaching trails. 

The Shawnee Indians, once inhabiting the everglades 
of Florida and Georgia, fled from the aggressive neigh- 
boring tribes, and settled in the forks of the Delaware, 



26 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

few years since by Dr. Throop, now owned by C. D. 
Hockwell, Esq., there was at the time of the first explo- 
ration of the valley by the whites, in 1762, the only per- 
manent camp found here, which then existed along its 
darkened border. Within this ancient clearing, the 
passer can hardly fail to observe an apple tree, short, 
cragged and venerable, standing on the east side of the 
road. This is the Indian apple tree, of great age, 13|- 
feet in circumference, and possibly was planted by old 
Capouse himself, more than a century ago. By hands 
selfish and rude, it was bereft of all its mates many 
years ago, merely because their wide-spread branches 
threw too much shade upon the inclosing meadow ! A 
few tall sprigs of grass probably repaid for the destroy- 
ing act. This single tree now stands alone as a relic of 
other times; afi:brding in the summer months, by its 
fatherly branches, as ample shade to the lolling ox as it 
did to the squaw or her wily lord, when he skimmed 
along the waters of the Lee-haw-hanna in his curling 
bark. In one of the apple trees cut down in 1804, were 
counted 150 concentric circles, or yearly growths, thus 
dating the tree back to a time long before the reports of 
the trapper or the story of the Indians came to tlie 
whites from the valley. Sixty years ago, a large wild- 
plum orchard, standing in a swale adjoining this clear- 
ing, hung with millions of the juicy fruit, while the 
grape, with all its tropical luxuriance, purpled the loaded 
tree-tops. The vines as well as the trees, were doubtless 
the result of Indian culture. 



CAPOUSE MEADOW. 27 



CAPOUSE MEADOW. 



Among the few Indian names in the valley preserved 
from the departed red-man, appears that of Capouse, the 
Indian signification of which nothing is found bearing 
upon. In this meadow, surrounded hy all the wild loneli- 
ness of momitain and valley, and peoj)led by a race or 
clan proud of all their savage virtues, Capouse was King. 
He was a brave, venerable Sachem, or Chief, of the 
Moncey tribe of Indians, whose council-fires lit up the 
valley long before the arrival of the whites. 

This tribe occupied, at an early day, the country ex- 
tending from the Kittatinnunk, or Blue Mountain, to 
the head of the Delaware and Susquehanna. Their 
great or principal fire blazed from Minisink, on the 
Delaware River, or as the Indians called it, 3fa-kerish~ 
Iciskon, while a clan or portion of the tribe chose the 
wilds of the Lee-haw-hanna for their residence. Of the 
exact time of the arrival of this tribe here, but very 
little or nothing reliable is known. The difiiculties with 
the Six I^ations and the Delawares at the time, induced 
the Monceys to concentrate their numbers around their 
principal settlement at Minisink. 

The Monceys paid tribute to their haughtier and more 
warlike neighbors, the Delawares, and of course were a 
dependent of that once powerful tribe. After a lapse of 
years of misfortune, both of these tribes have, after 
being wronged, driven, and almost destroyed by the 
spoiler of their power and heritage, reached Kansas 
Territory, where the Monceys are slowly merging with 
the Delaware tribe. 

The rich, flat, beautiful meadow-land, literally scooped 



28 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

out of the Moosic range, and which gives to that por- 
tion of the valley lying within the old certified town of 
Providence upon the west side of the Lackawanna such 
a basin-like appearance, was early designated by the 
Yankee settler " Capouse Meadow," to perpetuate the 
name as well as the virtues of this pacific chief. Al- 
though the whole valley was occupied by the Indians 
long before the blankness of his life was interrupted by 
the aggressions of the pale-face, or before the topo- 
graphy of the country was learned by the hunter, this 
clearing was the only one found in the valley by the 
pioneer, where rose from the forest banks the barked 
wigwam. In accordance with the usual habit practised 
by the wild tribes, of annually burning over their hunt- 
ing-grounds, there was little or no sapling growth to in- 
terfere with the chase around this meadow ; besides this, 
the lower and larger limbs were kept so completely 
trimmed by the hatchet, that game could be seen among 
the trees for a considerable distance. 

This meadow, now known as " Tripp's Flats," and 
mostly owned by our liberal townsman Col. Ira Tripp, was 
one of their favorite hunting-places. Around this camp 
game was abundant. The pheasant whirred from the 
brake, the duck sat in the silver stream as if it was its 
throne, the rabbit squatted in the laurel, the elk and the 
fleeter moose stood among their native pines, or thun- 
dered onward like the tread of cavalry — the deer in 
fearless mood browsed on the juicy leaf, while the moun- 
tain sides, though stern with wilderness, offered to tlie 
panther or the bear but little shield from the well-poised 
arrow of the Indian. The otter, the martin, the beaver 
and the musk-rat, held their haunts along the stream, 
where fish were numerous. Perch, pike, and the chub, 



OAPOUSE MEADOW. 29 

in fabulous numbers, swam tlie Lackawanna, while 
every fair water brook that bubbled from the mountain 
was alive with trout. Hooks, constructed with singular 
ingenuity by the red-men from bone, or nets, wove from 
the inner bark of trees, or even the spear, which they 
threw with admirable adroitness at a distance of thirty 
feet while the fish were moving rapidly, never failed to 
supply the wigwam with this delicious fish. 

The Capouse region, although traversed only by wild 
beasts and warriors up until lYTO, has, since that period, 
been the scene of many an Indian drama. 

Savage appetite, already sharpened by the wars pre- 
ceding the Hevolution, found at that time only pleasure 
in murder and pillage along the Delaware and the Sus- 
quehanna. In 1778, after the massacres in Cherry 
Yalley and Wyoming, the savages swept up the Lack- 
awanna in small parties, where but few white settlers 
were still remaining. The scattered houses of the whites 
were lit by the torch, the few inhabitants who had neg- 
lected or were unable to fiee were either shot or taken 
away as prisoners, and the cattle, sheep, and horses, 
driven away into the Indian country. 

Three persons, named Keys, Hocksey, and Isaac 
Tripp, were taken prisoners here by the Indians. The 
next day they were taken up on the war-path leading 
through the forest of Abington to Oquago, where Keys 
and Hocksey were tomahawked, while Tripp, who had 
previously shown kindness to the savages, was painted 
over with war-paint and sent back to the valley. 

A short time after, while he was engaged in gathering 
his crops upon the flats, near where now resides Capt. 
Lewis Carr, he was shot and scalped by a straggling 
party of Indians. 



30 LACKAWAI^NA VALLEY. 

A small detachment of soldiers were sent here in 
1779 by Gen. Sullivan, to reconnoitre, but finding no 
Indians here, they returned to the main body of the 
army, and accompanied that distinguished general up 
the Susquehanna to the Indian villages scattered along 
the stream. 

James Brown, who died in Greenfield a few yeai's 
ago, was one of the party thus detailed. 

The gun and the tomahawk, the knife and the fagot^ 
did the work of destruction, wherever the white man 
was found defenceless. Three persons, named Avery, 
Lyons, and Jones, were taken from the Capouse about 
this time, and carried away as prisoners into the lake 
country."^ These were some of the fugitives from the 
"Wyoming Yalley, rendered homeless by the Indian bat- 
tle there in 1778. 



WAR PATH. 

One of the three long-trodden paths of the warrior 
leading out of the Wyoming, led eastward to Coshutunk 
(now Cochecton), a small Indian settlement upon the 
shore of the Delaware. Leaving the valley at the mouth 
of the Lackawanna River, as it is pleasantly called, it 
followed the eastern bank of this stream up to Spring, 
Stafi'ord Meadow, and Roaring Brook, crossing the last 
two named ones a short distance below the present loca- 
tion of Scranton, and passing into the Indian village of 
Capouse. Here one path led ofl' to Oquago, New 
York (now Windsor), through Leggett's Gap, and the 

* Miner. 



INDIAN SPRING. 31 

wilderness of Abington, while the other, passing np from 
the Lackawanna in an easterly direction, struck boldly 
into the forest, passing along where Dunmore now stands, 
and up the mountain slope where footholds seemed un- 
safe. This path crossed the Moosic range near the 
present residence of John Cobbs, and thence through 
Little Meadows in Salem, and the Wallenpanpack 
region. This trail seldom ran through the mountain 
gaps, but it generally, like all their war-paths, kept the 
higher ground, or where the woods were less dense, for 
the wild tribes preferred climbing over a considerable 
elevation, to the labor of cutting a trail over more level 
ground, or through deep wooded ravines ; besides this, 
overlooking points were chosen so that upon entering or 
leaving a valley they could better be apprised of the 
presence or approach of an enemy. Of this old, nar- 
row trail, few indeed are the remaining traces, where 
the war-song once resounded, while the brave lapped 
the blood of his foe or his game. 

The first wagon-road cut and opened to the Wyoming 
Yalley followed this path the greater part of the way, 
as being the most direct route from the parent State to 
the county and town of Westmoreland. 



INDIAN BPEING, 

Almost upon the very summit of the Moosic moun- 
tain, between the valley and John Cobbs, by the side 
of this old trail, bubbles from the earth a large spring, 
called the " Indian Spring." No matter how parched 
the lips of mother earth — how shrunken the volume of 
streams elsewhere, this spring pays no attention to the 



32 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

drought, but, summer or winter is ever filled to its brim 
with the coldest and clearest water. 

Away from the world's hot pulse ; hemmed in com- 
pletely by the pine, whose waving tops give partial 
entrance to the noon-day sun it seems sweeter and 
more sublime from its very loneliness. The mountain, 
the rocks, the inclosing forest — all is silence around it, 
but winds and bird-songs. The spring boils up from 
the white sand, lingers but a moment in its quiet eddy, 
then down the mountain staircase, dallies child-like, 
and forms the little Roaring Brook, one of the tributa- 
ries of the Roaring Brook. 

In July, 17T8, two fugitives were killed here. 
Retreating from the smoking valley at Wyoming, imme- 
diately after the massacre there by the Tories and 
Indians, they sat down thirsty and exhausted by this 
spring, for the invigorating draught. They never rose 
again. The gory hatchet of the savage flew from the 
ambush ; the red knife swung through their scalps, and 
the wolves at night made loud their carnival over the 
imresisting and unburied dead. 

A large red rock rims one side of this spring, whose 
crimson color, tradition already tells, was imparted 
to it by the victims thus immolated ! 

This spring possesses a good deal of interest to the 
lovers of the wonderful and the wild. 



INDIAN KELICS AND FORTIFICATIONS. 

Ko evidence is found of Indian forts in the Lackawanna 
Yalley, although there existed one or more a few miles 
below it, one of which is thus described by Chapman : 



INDIAN EELICS AND FORTIFICATIONS. 33 

" In the valley of Wyoming, there exist some remains 
of Indian fortifications, which appear to have been con- 
structed by a race of people very different in their 
habits from those who occupied the place when first 
discovered b}^ the whites. Most of these ruins have 
been so much obliterated by the operations of agricul- 
ture, that their forms cannot now be distinctly ascer- 
tained. That which remains the most entire was 
examined by the writer during the summer of 1817, 
and its dimensions carefully ascertained; although, 
from frequent ploughing, its form had become almost 
destroyed. It is situated in the township of Kington, 
upon a level plain on the north side of Toby's creek, 
about one hundred and fifty feet from its bank, and 
about a half mile from its confluence with the Sus- 
quehanna. It is of an oval or elliptical form, having its 
longest diameter from the northwest to the southeast, 
at right angles to the creek, three hundred and thirty- 
seven feet, and its shortest diameter from the northeast 
to the southwest, two hundred and seventy-two feet. 
On the southwest side, appears to have been a gate- 
way about twelve feet wide, opening towards the great 
eddy of the river, into which the creek falls. From 
present appearances, it consisted, probably, of only one 
mound or rampart, which, in height and thickness, 
appears to have been the same on all sides, and was 
constructed of earth ; the plain on which it stands, not 
abounding in stone. 

*' On the outside of the rampart is an intrenchment or 
ditch, formed, probably, by removing the earth of which 
it is composed, and which appears never to have been 
walled. The creek, on which it stands, is bounded by a 
high steep bank on that side, and at ordinary times is 

2* 



34 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

sufficiently deep to admit canoes to ascend from the 
river to the fortification. When the first settlers came 
to Wyoming, this plain was covered with its native 
forest, consisting principally of oak and yellow pine ; 
and the trees which grew in the rampart and in the in- 
trenchment, are said to have been as large as those in 
any other part of the valley ; one large oak particularly, 
upon being cut down, was ascertained to be seven hun- 
dred years old. The Indians had no tradition concern- 
ing these fortifications, neither did they appear to have 
any knowledge of the purposes for which they were 
constructed. They were, perhaps, erected about the 
same time with those upon the waters of the Ohio, and 
probably by a similar people and for similar purposes." 

'' Another fortification existed on Jacob's Plains or the 
Upper Flats, in Wilkes Barre. Its situation is the 
highest part of the low grounds, so that, only in ex- 
traordinary floods, is the spot covered with water." * 
This fort seems to have been of about the same in form, 
shape, and size, to that described by Chapman, and in 
its interior, near the southern line, the ancient people all 
concur in stating that there existed a well.f 

At the confluence of the Lackawanna with the Sus- 
quehanna, Indian graves and remains were found in 
great abundance, fifty years ago. Skeletons, exhumed 
and brought to light by the the waters of spring freshets, 
lay in such numbers upon the fields, and so familiar had 
they become to the thoughtless passer, that boys were 
often seen with a thigh bone in each hand, growing pa- 
triotic with the tune of Yankee Doodle, drummed upon 
the bleached and chimeless skulls, strewed upon the 

* Miner's History. f Miner's History. 



INDIAN RELICS AND FORTIFICATIONS. 35 

plain around tliem. Some of these, no doubt, were the 
remains of the warriors, who fell in the battles of the 
valley, as bullets, so corroded as to be white in appear- 
ance, and broken arrow-heads, were often found with 
them, indicating the sudden manner of their death. 

Others, crumbling the moment they were uncovered, 
or only furnishing a dark and peculiar deposit, bore the 
evidence of greater age in their burial. Bowls of the ca- 
pacity of a gallon or more, ingeniously cut from soap- 
stone, were often found with the remains. These would 
seem to indicate the commercial or migratory character 
of their possessors, as none of these stones are found 
nearer this place than in Maryland. Hard and hand- 
somely dressed stones, five or six inches in length, fitted 
for the hand and used probably for skinning deer and 
other animals, here and there appeared among the re- 
mains. 

On the brink of the western range of the Moosic 
mountain, in Leggett's Gap, between Providence and 
Abington, an Indian grave w^as found in a very simple, 
but singular manner, a number of years ago. A deer, 
fleeing from his pursuers, leaped upon the end of a pro- 
jecting gun barrel, bringing it to view. A little exca- 
vating by the hunter exhibited a quantity of flint, 
worked into arrow and spear heads, a stone tomahawk, 
a French gun-barrel, a hoe, and some human bones. 
The skeleton lay on its right side with the knees drawn 
up, the head pointing towards the east, while immedi 
ately over lay the implements and weapons of the de 
ceased. The hoe and the gun, both much corroded, were 
probably obtained from the French, while their burial 
with the warrior would indicate the time of their depo- 
sit as a period of peace. In his lap were found the 



S6 LACKAWAJSTNA VALLEY. 

arrows, made from one to two inches in length. J^early 
a hundred sm.all snail shells, all fitted for stringing, and 
which had probably been used for belts or beads, lay 
immediately under the arrows. There was also a pipe, 
made of dark stone, one end of it being shaped for a 
stopple, and the other for a scoop or spoon. This sin- 
gular contrivance could either be used for a whistle, or 
for eating porridge or broth. A small quantity of min- 
eral, resembling black lead, had also been deposited in 
the grave beside the departed. 

A portion of these interesting relics, in a tolerable 
state of preservation, are now in the possession of the 
writer. 

Upon the western bank of the Lackawanna in the up- 
per part of Capouse, on the Yan Stork farm, rises up a 
quiet little mound, where, in 1795, a number of Indian 
graves were discovered. As one of the mounds seemed 
to have been prepared with especial attention, and con- 
tained, with the bones of the warrior, a great quantity 
of the implements of the deceased, it was erroneously 
supposed to have been that of Capouse himself. These 
graves, perhaps, pointed to the last of the group of war- 
riors who had offered incense and sacrifice to the Great 
Spirit at Capouse. The wampum and their war instru- 
ments — ^for which the graves were disturbed — bore them 
silent company as they lay piled over with the grey 
sand of the meadow, and were protected on their long 
journey by these rude amulets. These graves, however, 
by the operations of agriculture, have been so complete- 
ly obliterated, that no trace of them now appears to the 
eye. 

Arrows, stone vessels, tomahawks ajid knives, stone 
mortars and their accompanying pestles for pounding 



INDIAN RELICS AND FORTIFICATIONS. 37 

corn, and other curious relics of Indian times, are occa- 
sionally met with in the valley, and although time has 
robbed them of much of their original beauty, they 
have lost none of their stran^re interest nor savag^e lore. 

To the antiquarian, however, none would afford more 
interest than the remains of an Indian mound or en- 
campment, found near Clifton, in Luzerne county, 
which to all appearances were as old as those existing 
in the Wyoming Yalley. These remains were discov- 
ered in 1833 by Mr. Welch, now a draughtsman in the 
Land Office at Washington, while he was engaged in 
hunting along Bell-meadow Brook, a small tributary of 
the Lehigh. The accidental discovery of a piece of 
pottery among the loose pebbles upon the bank of the 
brook, so different in its character to anything he had 
ever seen before, naturally awakened his curiosity and 
led to the subsequent excavation of a vast quantity of 
sharp and flinty arrow-heads, a large stone hatchet, 
bowls of great capacity, fashioned from sand and a large 
proportion of clay. These bowls were upon their sides, 
indented with deep finger prints, and some were tastily 
and curiously ornamented with characters, original and 
unique. 

Kichard Drinker, Esq., of Scranton, to whom the 
writer is indebted for the above facts, was present at 
the time of their discovery, and says that the amount 
of pottery thus found was enormous. A very neat, 
short pipe, belonging probably to a squaw, was also found 
immediately under the tomahawk, in so perfect a state 
of preservation that it was, to all appearances, as fit for 
the consumption of their favorite weed as when first 
fashioned into shape. A huge pile of elk bones and 
teeth was also found, but the bones crumbled to dust 



38 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

tlie moment they were exposed to the air or the toiicli. 
Underneath them all, lay the remains of a great camp- 
fire, which was probably hm-riedly deserted, and as hur- 
riedly smothered with sand and stone to the depth of 
twelve or fourteen inches. Ashes, coals, and half-burned 
brands, one of which still bore the marks of the hatchet 
distinctly upon it, were spread over a surface of fifteen 
feet. 

The most singular article of anything exhumed from 
the mass, was a large number of flat, delicately smoothed 
stones, in shape and size resembling the carpenter's whet- 
stone, bored with a number of small, circular holes. 
Whether these had been drilled and used for weaving 
fish-nets from hemp or wood, making belts of wampum, 
or for other mechanical purposes, remains a matter of 
mere conjecture. 

Trees of Norway girth have grown upon the edge of 
this brook since this camp-fire was left and buried, and 
almost upon these remains, one immense hemlock, which 
has defied the storms of centuries, stands like a sentinel 
over this silent but savage sepulchre. 

All of these relics had probably been deposited here 
by the red-men long before their knowledge of the 
European race, but why they were thus left so isolated 
from any of their known war-paths, or the period and 
purpose of their smothered fire, will be left to the anti- 
quarian to determine. 

The beaver, which was caught more for its furs than 
for its castoreum — now a considerable medicinal agent — 
once held their court in a little marsh or meadow 
adjoining this ancient camp, where the Indians evi- 
dently obtained sand for their pottery. 

In fact, the Lackawanna Spring, and Roaring Brook 



INDIAN RELICS AND FORTIFICATIONS. 39 

as well as the wilder waters of the Lehigh — the Le-haw 
of tlie Indian — were inhabited by the beaver at the time 
of the first settlement of the valley by the whites. 
Across these streams they built their dams upon the 
most scientific principles of the engineering art, living 
upon ash, birch, and poplars, of which they were par- 
ticularly fond.* In the deepest part of the pond 
they built their houses, resembling the wigwam of the 
Indian in shape and size, with a floor of saplings, which 
sloped towards the water like an inclined plane. Here 
they slept with thei7' tails under water^ ascending their 
chamber with the rise of the stream. Rafting in the 
larger streams destroyed their dams, driving the beaver 
to brooks lesser and more remote. In 1826 there came 
from Canada a villainous old trapper, who caught all of 
these singular animals from the Lachawanna and the 
Lehigh but a single one ; this, by his superior instinct, 
defied the trapper's cunning, and he, wandering down 
the shallow waters of Broadhead's Creek in search of 
his lost companions, was killed a year or two later near 
Stroudsburg. 

Is it not a little curious that, with all the interest said 
to be felt in everything pertaining to the Wyoming and 
Lackawanna Yalleys, no attention whatever has ever 
been paid towards collecting and preserving the various 
Indian implements once used in peace or in war ? The 
writer has a strong passion for the old — not the old hills, 
nor the forest, through whose hoary locks centuries have 
rustled along unsung and unobserved, but the lingering 
relics of the red-man, which convey at once to the mind 
the ideal, the strifes, the passions, and the glory of 

* There are many places along these streams which were thus origi- 
Tially stripped of all their growth by the beaver. 



4:0 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

another day and a departed race. These fading links 
and landmarks of the past: the coarse yst ingenius 
utensils of pottery and bone; the rarer implements of 
copper sometimes found in their ancient graves ; the 
rude inscriptions which mark the first impulses of the 
wild men towards letters or written legend ; the stone 
battle-axe or tomahawk once flung or brandished by 
the brave ; the knife whose scalping edge once gleamed 
over the victim, whose age and weakness plead alike in 
vain for life ; the arrow sprung upon its fatal mission^ 
or the pipe once smoked around the forest fire — all are 
so associated with by-gone times, that as the obedient 
plough now and then up-turns some little remembrance 
of the warrior's life, it seems strange that not half a 
dozen of these sad memorials have been gathered and 
preserved in the valley to-day. Such a collection could 
not fail to be really interesting to every thoughtful mind, 
and how much more valuable would they become as 
years rendered their possession more difficult or quite 
impossible ! 



AN INDIAN LEGEND. 

It is probable that no part of the country affords a 
broader scope for the researches of legendary than that 
along the Susquehanna and the Lackawanna. Here, im- 
mured in the wide forest, and surrounded by every ele- 
ment of grandeur, the Onondagoes, the Senekas, the Ca- 
yugas, Oneidas and Mohawks, went forth with paint 
and war song, to gather the scalps of the white man — 
the spoiler of their thresholds. The red-men who are 
paying their late visit to the Great Spirit, held their coun- 



AN INDIAN LEGEND. 41 

cil fires on the plains, where doom and danger were 
breathed upon the expanding settlements. 

The following is among the many legends of midnight 
massacres and adventures, which are yet preserved in 
the traditions of the valley. 

Upon a commanding eminence, contiguous to, and 
overlooking a portion of the valley, there lived at the 
period we speak of, a farmer, whose hospitality and in- 
tegrity the savage even could not dispute, and whose 
modest, narrow patch of earth, and attachments of a 
family, gave him all the happiness he could comprehend 
or wish for. The family so abruptly introduced, had fal- 
len npon perilous times. The scenes of Colonial warfare, 
where the easily excited savages became active parti- 
cipants, broke in upon their night-dreams. The house 
fell by the lurid brand, and the family of fourteen persons, 
with one exception, perished by the tomahawk or the 
flames. Little David, 14 years of age, was carried away 
captive by the Indians, and just as morning dawned up- 
on the hills, found himself upon a mountain which af- 
forded an indistinct view of the then little village of 
Wilkes Barre. Here the Indians camped, preparatory to 
their migration to the Upper Indian Country. And here 
a mysterious transaction took place, which has subse- 
quently given rise to no little surmise and search. An old 
Indian chief, to whom all paid reverence, and whose 
advice controlled every movement, arose, and advancing 
a few rods, stooped down and removed a large flat 
stone, exposing to view a spring. The waters of this 
were conducted away by a subterranean aqueduct, pur- 
posely constructed so that when they came to light 
every appearance would seem to indicate that they had 
their origin in the very opposite direction to what tliey 



4:2 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

did. At the mouth of the spring, a roll of bark, forming 
a spont, was placed in such a manner as to readily con- 
duct the water from it, and mider this a handkerchief — 
belonging to David's mother but a few hours before — 
was so held as to receive the stream of water. For some 
minutes the chief stirred up the spring with so much vio- 
lence as to render it turbid and sandy. After this was 
done, everything around the spring was restored to its 
former appearance by the concealing rock, earth and 
leaves, so that no one not familiar with the fact, could 
have suspected a spring in contiguity to the spot. 

The handkerchief was now lifted from the spout, com- 
pletely covered with fine, yellow particles resembling 
gold. This was taken by the chief, and placed in a 
rudely fashioned stone vessel, purposely made to re- 
ceive the glittering treasure. 

The fire being extinguished, and certain incantations 
necessary to prevent any but the rightful owners to dis- 
cover the hidden spring being performed, the Indians 
left this point guarded by the wild rock, and resumed 
their trail to the north, guided by the polar star. Of the 
hopes and heart-aches of young David during the jour- 
ney, it is not necessary to write. 

After a walk of six days, the village of Kingston upon 
the Hudson was reached, where the substance, which 
the old chief had been so careful to collect and conceal, 
was exchanged for such tawdry goods as seemed desir- 
able to the Indians. David was at once ransomed by the 
whites. In after years, he often related the incident to 
his children — one of whom, in company with other per- 
sons, has traversed and dug over a considerable portion 
of Bald Mountain and CamphelVs Ledge without find- 
ing the secret channel. 



SALT SPRING. 43 

Of tlie value ot gold and silver the Indians early 
learned during their intercourse with the whites, and, 
knowing how fatal to their hunting grounds were the 
aggressions of the pale-face, they took the most severe 
caution in concealing from them all knowledge of the 
existence of mines and mineral substances. The Indian 
who informed the whites of any such location, paid the 
penalty of his imprudence by death. Yet the whites 
at an early day, by some treacherous means, knew of 
the locality of a silver mine not far from the Lacka- 
w^anna Yalley ; this knowledge, however, appears to 
have passed away with the generation possessing it. 

In the Pennsylvania Archives, we are informed, that 
the Indians complained to the Proprietary Government 
as early as in 1766, of persons who had " dug a trench, 
45 feet long and 6 feet deep, from which 3 boat-loads 
of silver ore were taken away." This mine was situated 
12 miles above the Indian vilhige Wywamick, or 
Maugh-Ava-w^ame (now Wilkes Barre). Instead of being 
taken in boats, the silver ore thus purloined was taken 
down the Susquehanna Piver in canoes. 

Could we gather all the startling incidents in the early 
settlement of the Lackawanna, they would fill a volume 
larger than this is intended. 

It is full of relics, full of the mysterious, full of excit- 
ing foot-prints, and those who are fond of the rigid 
lore of the Indian can find here all they desire. 



SALT SPPwING. 

Passing through Leggett's Gap and near the saw-mill 
of Benjamin Leach, we find a point of some little inter- 



44 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

est from tlie existence there of a salt spring, once used 
by the aboriginal race. It is a small spring, strongly 
impregnated with saline properties. When the white 
adventurer first sought the valley for his home and 
found no other luxury than steak from the bear or the 
deer, and no other voice than that spoken from the 
throat of the musket, the waters of this spring were 
boiled to obtained the scarce and necessary salt. That 
the Indians frequented this place for the purpose of cur- 
ing venison and other purposes, evidence is afforded by 
the vast quantity of warlike and domestic relics of 
theirs found here at an early day. 

The warrior's path from Oquago, where there also was 
a salt spring, came immediately along here, as it entered 
Capouse below. There is no " deer lick " or salt spring 
along the Lackawanna, other than this — the nearest 
being in the northern part of Wayne county. 

Mr. Blackman, who was taken captive from Wy- 
oming, relates of the Indians, that when salt became 
scarce, they went up the Lackawanna and returned the 
next day, loaded with the desired article, which was 
sometimes warm. From a knowledge of this spring, 
advantage was early taken by the hunter and trapper, 
for in such numbers deer frequented this briny foun- 
tain to lap its waters, that they easily and often fell a 
trophy to the woodsman. 

A hunter of seventy winters tells the writer that, in 
his younger days, deer were so tame in the vicinity of 
this spring, that he has killed and dressed during his 
lifetime one hundred and forty-seven deer at this place 
alone ! 

This little spring was known to the Indians by the 
name of Mesomersic, or Me-shom-as-seck, which signi- 



RATTLESNAKES. 45 

fies in their language abundance of Rattlesnakes.'^ Like 
all the old Indian names in the valley, this is now obso- 
lete and quite forgotten. Within a few years, the 
waters of this spring have been boiled to obtain salt. 



RATTLESNAKES. 

Wlien the Indian skimmed along the Lee-haw-hanna 
in his light canoe, the rattlesnake lay coiled on every 
rock. Within the old Capouse Meadow these reptiles 
were found in such abundance that in the year 1790 
over two hundred were killed here during the year, by 
one man — killed, too, at a time of such great scarcity, 
that they were skinned eel-fashion, and furnished food 
to the starving settlers. 

Cooked in Indian fashion, the meat of this reptile 
was much relished by the forest tribes, as it yet is by 
many. 

Cows were often bitten by them, causing much suffer- 
ing to the poor family depending for subsistence 
mainly upon their milk. An old white-headed man, 
whose thread of sand has not yet been broken, relates 
to the writer an instance of Ms only cow, thus becom- 
ing poisoned, when from sheer necessity he brought one 
of his oxen to give w.ilk. 

Of all the tropical climates, Ceylon is said to be the 
nursery of snakes, but the interior of Arkansas is the 
North American capital of the rattlesnake. Here 
they exist in such numbers in every thicket and mea- 
dow, that it is unsafe for the hunter to camp out at 



I * Mishom — grcat^ and sesses and asseh — roAtlesnaJce. — RogerWilliams. 



46 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

night, unless protected by lohite ash leaves, or a hair 
rojpe drawn around the ground chosen for the camp- 
pLace. They grow here to an immense size, and many 
species of them fraternize in their rocky den, during 
their winter retreat, and only when their devouring 
enemy the hog, with its long, intruding, adipose snout, 
gets on the scent of these ugly creatures, are they dis- 
turbed and thinned. The fatty portion of swine, is so 
impervious to the poison of this snake, that unless the 
bite is introduced near some blood-vessel, where it runs 
along with lightning-like rapidity, it is resisted with 
silent and harmless indifference. Many other active 
poisons, among which is the Gyclameti Eurjpc&um^ or com- 
mon sow-weed, one of the most violent poisons, and in 
its effects similar to the Gurara used by many tribes of 
Indians to poison the tips of their arrows, is eaten by 
the hog in large quantities with perfect impunity? 
while the juice of the root, upon all other kinds of 
animal life, is quickly fatal. 

The fact may not generally be known that the high 
state of excitement of the rattlesnake attending the 
phenomena of charming, is nothing more than a singu- 
lar and necessary provision of Mature to prepare the 
stomach of the reptile for the reception of the food, 
while the " charming jpwjoer " as it is called, is nothing 
more nor less than an eleetrical ciu^ent, passing from 
the snake to the bird, or to any object charmed. The 
snake, livincr iu or on the orround, is alwavs in the most 
negative condition of any kind of animal life, while the 
bird, floating in the air, where the positive preponderates, 
is always charged with this electric power, so naturally 
attracted by tlie oppositely charged condition of the 
snake. During this stimulating process, the digestive 



RATTLESNAKES. 47 

powers are awakened, while the throat is rendered suffi- 
ciently moist and elastic to receive animals of astonish- 
ing size with perfect ease. 

The rattlesnake, however, with all its dreaded and 
deadly qualities, possesses one honorable characteristic 
worthy of imitation elsewhere: it never, or rarely 
springs upon the intruder, without first giving warning 
by its rattle, nor is it known to devour an animal placed 
in its cage, without first exciting the large salivary 
organs by the phenomena of charming. 

Without the squeezing or constricting power of the 
black snake, or the terrible death-wind of the boa ; 
this essential peculiarity seems to have been furnished 
this species of snake, for the purpose of obtaining ani- 
mal food as well as for its proper digestion. 

An old settler, who often watched their movements in 
the valley, while he was a mere lad, relates to the writer 
an instance or two he witnessed of this " snake charm- 
ing." 

After being buried in the rocks during the months of 
cold weather, they emerge in the spring from their hid- 
ing places, prepared to glut themselves upon the swift 
est and sweetest of birds. 

In going to this Indian salt spring, in the notch, while 
a boy, says the old man, I perceived, coiled almost 
immediately before me, in the path, a huge rattlesake, 
with its head slightly raised from the ground and thrown 
gently to and fro, like a tree-top moved by the wind 
Within fifteen feet, fluttered a blue-bird, chirping 
piteously as it listened to the soft, sweet, death-song of 
the rattle, its eye fastened upon that of the snake, 
which flashed like the diamond as nearer drew the 
struggling bird. The snake threw out a strong narcotic 



48 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

odor, wliose sleepy effects were soon perceived on tlie 
victim. 

Sweeter and softer fell the fatal music, closer and 
closer to tlie reptile hopped the helpless bird, until it 
came within about one foot of its month, when the club 
dropped upon the enchanter. So intent the snake's eye 
upon its victim, that it neither observed the intruding 
footsteps nor the missile of death impending. For a 
few moments the bird seemed intoxicated, but it soon 
flew away among it mates, as noisy and unharmed as 
before its song was interrupted. 

Another instance related was that of a weasel. In pass- 
ing along the Capouse Meadow in mid-summer, I saw one 
of these attenuated creatures, as it was running along the 
fence with singular rapidity, stop suddenly, uttering at 
the same time a wail, wild, frightful, and sad. Simul- 
taneously with this, I heard the sound of a rattle coming 
from a large, brilliant, yellow snake beside the fence, 
having the most beautiful, fire-like eye I ever saw, look- 
ing at the weasel. Wishing to see the result of an en- 
counter, so unusual to the sight of boyhood, and hav- 
ing but little sympathy for the animal, as the chicken 
coop, more than once, had been visited by the sharp- 
toothed assassin or his kindred associates, I watched 
the unequal combat with interest, knowing that the snake 
easily could be killed after its victory, as it then lies 
torpid and indifferent as a drunken man to every object 
around it. 

When the weasel first halted for the snake, it was 
some twenty feet from it, and it was about one hour be- 
fore it became a trophy to the strange power of the rep- 
tile. Now and then the poor animal would stop, then 
start and stagger oft' in a slanting direction as if to get 



ENGLISH CHARTER OF LANDS. 4:9 

away, when the snake would throw the full glare of his 
eye upon it, accompanied with such a low, lulling sound 
of his rattle, that the weasel would again advance hur- 
riedly for a foot or two, then alternately stop and start, 
until it approached within a few inches of the charmer, 
when it gave one quick, nervous spring into its excited, 
opened mouth. One coil the snake gave to its glisten- 
ing neck and body during the operation of deglutition, 
then, stretching itself out in the noonday sun with the 
greatest complacency, dropped into a lazy slumber. A 
light tap on the back of his head rendered him lifeless 
at once. Opening its body with a jack-knife, the mo- 
ment it was killed, the weasel was found dead in its 
stomach, without any apparent contusion or wound 
from the fangs of the snake. 



ORIGINAL ENGLISH CHARTER OF THE LANDS OF WHICH 
LACKAWANNA VALLEY WAS A PART. 

The Lackawanna Yalley was originally owned and 
settled by Connecticut, whose jurisdiction over her 
" Westmoreland " Colony, extended for a period of nine 
years. 

To better comprehend the nature of her claim to these 
lands, over which Pennsylvania also claimed proprietor- 
ship, a very brief historical summary of their respective 
claims, and their ultimate adjustment, seems here ap- 
propriate. 

Nations, like individuals, recognize the law of aggran- 
dizement as being as valid as it seems natural. Thus 
the different nations of the world, eager to reap the ad- 

3 



50 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

vantages of any discovery of their respective subjects, 
claim all territory tlius discovered. 

That portion of North America from Florida to lati- 
tude 58° being discovered in 1497 by Sebastian Cabot, 
was thus claimed by the English, and when adventurei-s 
wished to settle upon any portion of such land, the rights 
and limits were regulated by their respective govern- 
ments, to make them of any value. 

Different companies, whose charters extended over a 
vast area, imperfectly defined and understood in its ter- 
ritorial limits, and only known by the reports of the 
Indians and the trappei-s, which upon all questions of 
geography and topography are always vague, and over 
which, as there had been no actual survey, claims be- 
coming overlapped, proved conflicting. 

The General Charter of New England was granted in 
1620, to " the Councils established at Plymouth, in the 
County of Devon, for Planting, Ruling and Governing 
of New England in America." ^ 

Lands thus granted included all " that portion of 
America lying and being in breadth from 40 degrees of 
the said northerly latitude inclusively, and in length of 
and within all the breadth aforesaid, thronghout the 
mainland from sea to sea, etc." 

Parts of this wide territory being subsequently trans- 
ferred to other companies, new colonies were planted 
and organized, and as their boundaries were very inde- 
finite even to the conceptions of the best, they often 
overreached each other, giving rise in their develop- 
ment to territorial conflicts, alike humiliating, passion- 
ate, and dangerous. 

* Trumbell 



61 



Such was the contest between Connecticut and Penn- 
sylvania in the Wyoming Valley, which has been so 
ably described both by Miner and Chapman. 



On the 4th of March, 1681, William Penn,^ son of 
Admiral Penn, a member of the Society of Friends, ob- 
tained of Charles the Second a grant of all lands em- 
braced within the i^resent State of Pennsylvania. This 
grant included " all that tract or part of land in Ameri- 
ca, with all the islands therein contained, as the same is 
bounded on the east by the Delaware River from 12 
miles distant northwards of New Castle Town unto the 
3 and 40 degrees of northern latitude (if the said river 
doeth not extend so far northward, then by the said river 
60 far as it doeth extend,) and from the head of the said 
river the eastern bounds are to be determined by a me- 
ridian line to be drawn from the head of the said river 
unto the said 3 and 40 degrees in longitude, to be com- 
puted from the eastern bounds, and the said lands to be 
bounded on the north by the beginning of the 3 and 40 
degrees of northern latitude." 

This grant from the King of England was given to 
Penn partly in consideration of his desire to extend and 
enlarge the boundaries of the British Empire, and partly, 
as expressed in the charter, as a recompense for valu- 
able services rendered by his father to the British 
nation. 



* Penn received from the Indians the name of Onas, i. e., quill or pen, 
from the fact that he governed by these instead of guns. 



62 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

l^early forty years before the settlement of Penn, a 
portion of this territory was colonized by the Swedes. 
These lands, which were sold July 11, 1754, by their 
original owners, the Six Nations, to the Susquehanna 
Company of Connecticut, were again sold by the Indians, 
assembled Nov. 5, 1768, at Fort Stanwix, to the Penn- 
sylvania Proprietaries. 



INDIAN PURCHASE BY CONNECTICIJT. 

Nineteen years, however, previous to this grant to 
Wm. Penn, an association of men under the name of the 
Colony of Connecticut, purchased of the proprietors of 
the old Plymouth grant, all their right and interest in 
the original charter, for 16,000 pounds sterling. 

In 1662, King Charles the Second confirmed and re- 
newed the Connecticut charter proper. 

" The charter of Penn extended his claims as far north 
as the boundary of Connecticut, and there was conse- 
quently an interference in the two claims, equal to one 
degree of latitude and 5 degrees of longitude,"* embrac- 
ing the Lackawanna Yalley and the adjacent country. 

Thus stood the charter claims at this time, between 
the respective parties, to lands which were yet in the 
possession of the Indians, without whose talk or title no 
colonial settlement could expect to be permanent, pros- 
perous, or safe. ♦ 

In 1753, 673 persons, ten of whom were Pennsylva- 
nians and the rest inhabitants of Connecticut, associated 
themselves for the purpose of extinguishing or procuring 

* Miner. 



INDIAN PURCHASE BY THE DELAWARE COMPANY. 63 

tlie Indian title, by presents and purchase, of the very 
lands already acquired by royal grant.^ 

At a general treaty, held at Albany in July, 1T54, 
with the Five Nations, the Susquehanna Company, by 
the payment of 2,000 pounds sterling to the assembled 
Indians, received from them a deed signed by eighteen 
Sachems, the Indians reserving to themselves the right 
of hunting upon the land they had sold for the term of 
seven years. This conveyed to this Companyf all the 
lands " beginning from the one and 42 degree of north 
latitude, at 10 miles east of the Susquehanna Kiver, and 
from thence with a northward line ten miles east of the 
river to the end of the 4c2d or beginning of the 43d de- 
gree of north latitude, and so to extend west 2 degrees 
of longitude 120 miles, and from thence south to the 
beginning of the 42d degree, and from thence east to 
the above mentioned boundary, which is 10 miles east 
of the Susquehanna River." 



INDIAN PURCHASE BY THE DELAWARE COMPANY. 

All of that portion of country lying between the 
Delaware River and within ten miles east of the Susque- 
hanna, was subsequently purchased of the Indians by a 
Connecticut company called the "Delaware," so that 
the southern and western portion of the Lackawanna 
was embraced in the original Indian sale of lands to the 
Susquehanna Company, made. at Albany in 1Y54, while 
the upper and nothern part of the valley, as well as the 
country eastward, belonged to the Delaware Company. 

* Miner. f The Susquehanna Company. 



54: LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

The region embraced within these purchases received 
the name of " Westmoreland." 

With a view of settlement here, commissioners were 
chosen by the Susquehanna Company to survey these 
lands. In the summer of 1755, they commenced their 
explorations in the Wyoming Yalley, and although their 
discoveries and surveys were sadly interrupted by one 
of those French and Indian wars so frequent and terrible 
in their character, the Commissioners returned to Hart- 
ford satisfied that these lands lay within the jurisdiction 
of Connecticut. 



FIRST SETTLEMENT UPON THE DELAWARE PURCHASE. 

About one hundred years ago — in 1754 — a settlement 
upon the Wallenpau]3ack (now in Wa^me county) was 
attempted by a man named Carter. Here, upon the 
products of his gun, his trap, and his line, his simple 
wants drew plenty. He lived here but a short time, 
however, before he fell by the tomahawk. 'No other 
white man ventured to settle in the Paupack region 
again for a number of years, and it was not until a short 
time previous to the Revolutionary War, that a settle- 
ment here was successful. The remains of an old block- 
house, used by the early adventurers at this place, could 
be seen a few years ago. In 1793, these ancient lands 
upon the Paupack passed into the hands of James Wil- 
son, the founder of Wilsonville, the first county seat of 
Wayne county. 

The nearest settlement to this point at that day was 
at Gnad-en-hutten,^ near Mauch Chunk, where the 

* Huts of mercy. 



SETTLEMENT UPON THE SUSQUEHANNA PURCHASE. 55 

Moravians, in the friendly character of missionaries, 
settled as early as 1742 among the Indians. 

In the summer of 1757, the first settlement attempted 
by the Delaware Company within the limits of the Con- 
necticut charter west was at Coshutunk, now Damascus, 
on the Delaware E-iver. 

The accretions to this were so rapid, that in three 
years from its commencing it contained 30 dwelling 
houses. 



FIRST SETTLEMENT UPON THE SUSQUEHANNA PURCHASE. 

To push a colony farther to the west — to Westmore- 
land — an attempt was made in August, 1762. Under 
the authority and direction of this Company, 200 pio- 
neers from Connecticut arrived at Mill Creek, in the 
Wyoming Valley, making the first improvement there.* 
Canada being ceded to England by the treaty of Paris, 
in 1763, hostilities between the French and English 
were closed. This, however, was no sooner done than 
an Indian and English war broke out with such violence 
as to strike terror among the little Colony at Wyoming. 
It was attacked by the Indians on the 15th of October ; 
and of the settlers about twenty were slain, and the 
remainder driven across the mountains to their native 
State in 1763.t 

* Miner^s History. 

f Gov. Hamlinton, of Philadelphia, ordered Col. Boyd to repair to 
Wyoming, in the month of September, who found the valley aban- 
doned by whites and Indians. 

From the " Pennsylvania Gazette,'''' Nov., 1763. 

Extract of a letter from Paxton, in Lancaster county, dated Oct. 23 : 



^6 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

In 1Y68, those persons who were interested in this pur- 
chase, upon the Susquehanna Kiver, met at Hartford, 
Connecticut, and " resolved that 5 townships, live miles 
square, should be surveyed and granted each to 40 set- 
tlers " in Westmoreland. Thus persons were induced 
to migrate to these wild and then almost worthless lands. 
These original settlers, or proprietors, were each to have 
a whole share, or settling right, or half-right, on wliicli 
they were obligated to remain, so as to be able to repel 
encroachments either of tlie Indians or those from 
Pennsylvania claimants. 

Forty settlers tlius emigrated to Wyoming, where they 
arrived February 8, 17G9 — 200 otliers followed in the 
spring.* These settled in the live townships, then existing, 
viz. Wilkes Barre, Hanover, Kingston, Plymouth and 
Pittston. 

Tlie wilderness between the settled points of the East- 
ern States, and Canada, began now to fill up and feel 
the tide of emigration. 

Along the Wallenpaupack Creek was an "Indian clear- 
ing," near which the whites made a permanent settle- 
ment in 1774:.f Lands occu})ied by the original emi- 
grants here are known as " The Walleiipaupack Manor." 

" When the first Wyoming emigrants from Connecti- 

" Our party, under dipt. Clayton, lias returned from Wyoming, where 
they met with no Indians, but found the New Englanders who had been 
killed and scalped a day or two before we got thei^e. We buried the 
dead, nine men and a woman, who had been most cruelly butchered ; 
the woman was roasted, and had two hinges in her hands, supposed to be 
put in red hot, and several of the men had awls thrust into their eyes, and 
spears arrows, pitchforks, etc., sticking in their bodies. We burnt what 
houses the Indians had left, and destroyed a quantity of Indian corn. 
The enemy's tracks were up the river, toward Wighaloasing." 

* Miner's Ilistory. f Ibid. 



SEITLEMENT UPON TtlE SUSQUEHANNA. rUROIlASE. 57 

cut reached the Wullenpiiu])}ick, the iiiiuii Ixxly hiilted, 
and some pioneers were sent forward in a westerly di- 
rection to procure intelligence of the position of tho 
country on the Hus<{ut'haima. 

Tlie pioneers followed the Indian patii before alluded 
to, leading from Oocliecton in New York, across the 
Lackawaxen, to the point on the Wallenpaupack below 
the Carter House, where there was an " Indian clearing," 
and thence to tho " Indian clearing " on the Susquehan- 
na. This path crossed " Cobh Mountain." TIk^ |)ioneers 
attaincul the; summit, from which the Susquohuima was 
in viow, in the evening, and biiilt up a large lire to in- 
dicate to the settlers tlie point to which they should di- 
rect their course. 

Tlic! next morning the emigrants commenced their 
jcujriiey, building their road as they proceeded. That 
road, being the Sterling road before mentioned about 
a miU; down the creek, below the site of the Carter 
iiouse, is the one which is now constantly travelled be- 
tween Wilkes Barre and Milford. It is said to have 
been most judiciously located. The point on which the 
fire was built on Cobb's Mountain, was near the present 
residence of John Cobb, Es(|., and is pointed out by tho 
people residing on the Walleni)aupack to the i)re8ent 
time.* 

The " Lackawa" settlement was in the Walh^npaupack 
Manor, and was not merely within the territorial limits 
of Westmoreland, but united in jurisdiction ; taking part 
in the Government, and attending elections at Wilkes 
Uarrcf 

* Mincr'a History of Wyoming. f Ibid. 

3* 



58 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 



PENNYMITE SETTLEMENT. 

Lands upon the Susquehanna, purchased in 1754 of 
the Five ISTations by the Susquehanna Company, were also 
sold in 1768 by the Indians, to the Pennsylvania Propri- 
etors. 

With a view of turning to some account this purchase, 
one hundred acres of it were leased by the Pennymites 
to Ogden Stewart and Jenkins, for the term of seven years 
for the purpose of establishing a trading house in the 
Wyoming Yalley, which from the contiguity of numer- 
ous tribes of Indians and the abundance of furs, was 
supposed could not fail to result greatly to the advantage 
of its projectors. 

The first gaze of Ogden and. his party upon Wyoming 
was given in January, 1769. He took immediate pos- 
session of the rude block house at Mill Creek, from which 
the Connecticut emigrants had. been driven six years 
before. 

One month later — on the 8th of February, 1769, the 
first forty of the Connecticut settlers arrived at the Block 
House, and finding it in the possession of an enemy, pre- 
pared, to recapture it."^ 

The alternate successes and reverses of the subsequent 
civil conflict upon the fertile flats of Wyoming, although 
alfecting in a greater or less degree the few inhabitants 
along the Lackawanna, possess too little general inte- 
rest to draw larger or longer upon the patience of the 
reader. 

• Chapman. 



TRENTON DECREE. 69 



TRENTON DECREE. 



For a period of nine years Connecticut held jurisdic- 
tion over Westmoreland, when the long and fratricidal 
dispute here, between Pennsylvania and Connecticut 
claimants, was settled by the " Decree of Trenton." 

During the Eevolutionary War, State governments 
were too much absorbed in the great life-struggle to 
remedy internal strifes and wrongs, even when they ap- 
pealed urgently for redress, but when Lord Cornwallis 
surrendered his army on the 19th of October, 1Y81, to 
the American and French forces, thus virtually closing 
the war, it imparted to individuals as well as to States 
the brightest hopes of domestic repose. 

Immediately after this momentous event, the Supreme 
Executive Council of Pennsylvania j^etitioned Congress 
to have some measures adopted to settle the respective 
claims of Pennsylvania and Connecticut, to lands lying 
upon the Susquehanna and Lackawanna. Five Commis- 
sioners composing this Court met at Trenton Nov. 12, 
1782, and, after a session of forty-one judicial days, de- 
cided that Connecticut had no right to the lands in con- 
troversy.* 

This decision which gave peace to a region long har- 
assed by internal warfare, is known as the Trenton Decree. 

In 1787, the confirming law was passed. It provided 
" that all said rights or lots, now lying within the county 
of Luzerne, which were occupied or acquired by Con- 
necticut claimants, who were actual settlers there, at or 
before the termination of the claims of the State of 

* Miner. 



60 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

Connecticut, by the (Trenton) decree, aforesaid, and 
which rights or lots w^ere purticulai'lj assigned to the 
settlers prior to the said decree, agreeably to the regula- 
tions then in force among them, be and they are hereby 
confirmed to them and their heirs and assigns." 

April, 1790, this act was repealed. In 1799, an act 
similar to the one repealed was passed, providing for a 
final settlement of the prolonged controversy, so far as 
it related to the inhabitants of the seventeen town- 
ships.'^ 

Commissioners were appointed by this act, to re-sur- 
vey all lands claimed by Connecticut settlers as well as 
Pennsylvania claimants, situated in these townships, 
which were then to be released or re-conveyed by such 
claimants to the Commonwealth. A number of settlers 
in the Lackawanna had bought and paid both the Sus- 
quehanna Company and the State of Pennsylvania, for 
their lands, but in order to restore harmony, and give 
full operation to the compromising law, they surren- 
dered their titles again to the State for a mere nominal 
consideration, and purchased their own lands again at 
the appraisement of the Commissioners appointed by 
the State. 

Such land, according to its quality, was divided into 
four classes : " As soon as forty thousand acres should 
be so released to the State, and the Connecticut settlers 
claiming land to the same amount should bind them- 
selves to submit to the determinations of the Commis- 
sioners, then the law was to take effect and the Penn- 
sylvania claimants, who had so released their lands, were 
to receive a compensation for the same, from the trea- 

* Miner, 



FIRST SETTLEMENT IN LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 61 

siiiy, at tlie rate of $5 per acre for lands of the first 
class, $3 for the second, $1 50 for the third, and 
twenty-five cents for lands of the fourth class. The 
Connecticut settlers were also to receive patents from 
the State, confirming their lands to them upon condi- 
tions of paying into the State Treasury, the sum of $2 
per acre, foi- lands of the first class ; $1 25 for lands of 
the second class ; fifty cents for lands of the third class, 
and 8J cents for lands of the fourth class." * 



FIRST SETTLEMENT IN LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

Contemporaneous with the permanent settlement of 
the Wyoming Yalley, began that of the Lackawanna. 
This was in the summer of 1709. 

The first party of emigrants from Connecticut, as they 
came into Wyoming or Westmoreland this year, located 
themselves in a body as much as possible, so as better 
to defend themselves from attacks, should they come 
from the red or the white man. After the Pennsyl- 
vania claimants had been temporarily ex])elled from 
Wyoming, the Yankees began cautiously to extend 
their " pitches,"f farther back into the unpruned wilder- 
ness. 

Five towns were originally recognized in Westmore- 
land; subsequently it was divided into seventeen towns, 
or districts. Settlers were permitted '^ to make a pitch " 
or settle in any of the towns, only by the consent, or 
the vote, of the inhabitants, who held their stated meet- 

* Chapman. 

f The homes or clearings of the settlers took this name. 



62 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

ings at Wilkes Barre Fort ; and then only upon certain 
stipulated conditions. 

" At a meeting of ye Inhabitants of ye townships at 
Wyoming, in Wilksbury, legally w^arned and held Dec. 
7, 1771, Capt. Zebnlon Butler, was chosen moderator 
for ye day," it was voted " that this Company is to take 
in Settlers on ye following Considerations, that those that 
take up a Settling Right in Lockaworna, shall pay 
to this Company Forty dollars ; and those that take a 
Right in Wilksbury or Plymouth, shall Pay Fifty 
Dollors ; and those that take a Right in Kingstown shall 
pay Sixty Dollors all for ye use of this Company, 
etc."* 

A committee was also appointed to take bonds from 
those who should be admitted as settlers. 

Lackawanna — or Lockaworna, as it then was desig- 
nated — being farther from the main settlement and con- 
sequently more exposed to wild beasts and Indians, 
than either Wilkes Barre or " Kingstown," was offered 

* Westmoreland Records. — These old Records, wliich deserve a more 
honored place than the musty coop they occupy in Wilkes Barre, are the 
records of the doings and laws of the Colony at Wyoming, while the 
authority of Connecticut was acknowledged here. 

As often as occasion required, the settlers met together at Wilkes 
Barre Fort, or at Kingstown, to pass laws and transact public business. 
These meetings were designated as " ye meeting of ye Proprietors " where 
all who chose to attend had an equal voice in the proceedings. A 
" moderator " was chosen at each meeting as well as a " clerk," whose 
duty it was to record in a book purposely kept, all the proceedings. This 
book took the place of Blackstone and Chitty, and was commenced in 
1^70, and terminated only with the expulsion of the jurisdiction of 
Connecticut, at Wyoming, in 1783. We know of no other ancient 
manuscript, whose publication would afford more interest and insight of 
other days, than the three or four written volumes of Westmoreland 
Records which are now so rapidly passing to decay. 



FIRST SETTLEMENT IN LACKAWANNA VALLEY. G3 

to the adventurer upon terms apparently more advan- 
tageous. 

Lackawanna, then extending the farthest up the 
Lackawanna Yalley of any of the existing Districts, 
contained in 1770, only thirty-five settlers. 

In regard to these, it was voted April 25, 1772, by 
this Company, '' that those 35 men that is now in ye 
township of Lockaworna shall be entitled to all ye 
Companyes Right to sd. township." 

With a view of imparting to the colony, a healthy, 
moral stamina, a committee of five were appointed at 
the same meeting " to admit settlers into ye six mile 
township. But for no one of the committee to admit in 
settlers unless ye major part of said Committee be 
present to admit," etc. and then to allow only " such as 
good wholsom inhabitants " to settle. 

December 17, 1771, " this meeting is opened and held 
by adjournment, voted, that Joseph Sprague, David 
Sandford, Barnabus Cary, Elezer Cary, jun., Arter 
French, Jolm Frazier, Timothy Reine, jun., Stephen 
Harden, and Caleb Bates, have each one, a Settling 
Right in ye township." 

Not only had morality its defenders in the early set- 
tlers, but industry was considered one of the essential 
virtues at this period, for at the meeting held in Wilkes 
Barre, December, 1771, it was voted '^ that Frank Phil- 
lips be admitted to Purchoys a settling Right in Locka- 
worna, Provided he puts on an Able Bodyed man on sd. 
Right and Due Duty Equal to ye Rest of ye Settlers," etc. 

April 29, 1772, voted " that Samuel Slougher is ad- 
mitted in as a Settler, in ye Room of Mortin Nelson, in 
ye township of Lockorworna," and in January 13, 1772, 
voted " that David Carr is admitted in as a Settler in 



64: LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

Lockaworna & lies Given His Bond for Forty Dollors," 
etc. 

Samuel Harden and Solomon Johnson were residents 
of the valley at this time, for in December, 1YY2, Har- 
den was chosen collector for Pittston, and Johnson " for 
ye town of Providence." 

Out of the original number of 240, who emigrated to 
Wyoming in 1769 — all of whom were males — only 35 
were located along the Lackawanna. The old " AVest- 
moreland Records," while they furnish so much that is 
valuable, fail to throw any light upon the precise loca 
tion of these ; they all lived, however, near the mouth 
of the stream. 

The absence of any block-house or fort nearer than 
Pittston, to afford security at night or day, in case of 
any great emergency, rendered the settlement farther 
up the stream neither desirable nor safe. 

A block-liouse was built in Pittston in 1772. At a 
meeting of the proprietors and settlers, held in Wilkes 
Barre, May 20, 1772, it was voted " that ye Proprietors 
Belonging to ye town of Pittston Have ye Liberty to 
Go into their town, and there to fortyfie and Keep in a 
Body E'ear together and Gourd by themselves until fur- 
ther notice from this Committee." 

Pittston, one of the original towns, lying as it did but 
a little distance above the block-house at Mill Creek, be- 
gan to fill up with the Yankee emigrants, before the 
Lackawanna Yalley. Among the early families here, 
were the Marcys, Careys, Bennetts, Benedicts, Blanch- 
ards. Sawyers, Silbeys, St. Johns, and Browns. One of 
the forts at Pittston, being built by the Browns, took the 
name of Fort Brown, and was commanded at the time 
of the Wyoming massacre by Captain Blanchard. 



FIRST SETTLEMENT m LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 65 

By the roadside in Pittston township, could be seen, 
a few years ago, the remaining stone once forming the 
rude chimney of one of the earliest cabins of the white 
man, from which a faint wreath of smoke arose in 1770. 
This cabin was erected by Zebulon Marcy, who emi- 
grated from Connecticut the same year, in the 26th 
year of his age. He was brother of Ebenezer, who 
shortly after came into possession of the narrow clear- 
ing with its modest dwelling. 

Choosing this spot upon the warrior's path from its 
inviting situation and soil for his residence, his little Hut- 
tentot-like hut, subsequently became famous for its hos- 
pitable fireside. This was but a short distance below the 
retrograding locality — long known as " Old Forge." 

At the time of the Wyoming massacre in 1778, Ebe- 
nezer Marcy was engaged with his comrades in defend- 
ing the valley below from the ravages of the British, 
Tories and Indians, when the news of the defeat of the 
Wyoming soldiers flew through the defenceless settle- 
ment with painful rapidity. Marcy 's wife was among 
the fugitives who fled from the valley, on the evening of 
the 3d of July, 1778, across the mountains to Strondburg. 
She " was taken in labour in the wilderness. Having 
no mode of conveyance, her sufi'erings were inexpressi- 
bly severe. She was able to drag her fainting footsteps 
but about two miles that day. The next, being overtaken 
by a neighbor with a horse, she rode, and in a week's 
time was more than 100 miles with her infant from the 
place of its birth. ""^ The child born then and subse- 
quently married t^\;ice, died a short time since in "Wyo- 
ming county. 



Miner. 



()6 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

Marcy liiiiiself was a man of some prominence and 
usefulness in liis clay, and January 30, 1772, was chosen 
the first Constable in Pittston. 

Barnabas Carky, whose right to settle here was voted 
in 1771, pitched farther up the valley, where, from the 
fallen tree and gathered bark, he fashioned a frail cabin, 
so as to afford a little protection from the storms and the 
w^olves. It is believed to have been the first one erect- 
ed by the white man above the Falls of the Lackawanna. 
The next year, 1772, Carey sold his claim to " the eight 
meadow Lott in ye township of Lockaworna to Jere- 
miah Blanchard for thirteen pounds and four shillings." 

John Taylor early made his " pitch " in Providence. 
He sou2:ht the solitude of the Lackawanna forest while 
he was young and filled with boy-dreams, settling near 
the farm, now familiarly known as " Uncle Jo. Grif- 
fin's." 

With no companions but his axe, his spade and his ri- 
fle at the time, he subsequently became a man of more 
than ordinary usefulness in the colony. lEe was a mem- 
ber of a number of committees, which received their 
existence with the expansion of the settlement, and he 
took an active part in the social and political organiza- 
tions of the day. 

Constant Searles and John Phillips were among the 
Connecticut emigrants who located in the valley in 1771. 
Frank (Francis) who was voted a settling right in " Lock- 
aworna" in December, 1771, was the father of John — then 
only 14 years of age, and settled in the " gore," between 
Pittston and Providence ; his lands adjoining those of 
Barnabas Carey. In April, 1777, Phillips' farm was 
sold to his son John for thirty pounds current money. 

Among the five commissioners chosen to purchase 



FIRST SETTLEMENT IN LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 67 

land, whereon to erect tlie necessary public buildings, 
at the time Luzerne coujity was formed, in 1786, appears 
the name of John Phillips. 

After the Trenton Decree authorized a re-survey of 
the prolonged disputed lands in the old certified town- 
ships, the Pennsylvania soldiers, excited and brutal with 
rum, began to lay open fields of grain for common pas- 
turage, destroying all belonging to the Yankee settlers, 
while establishing the boundaries of Pennsylvania, re- 
gardless of those of Connecticut. 

Phillips and his family were among those driven from 
their farms in 1784, in a manner so graphically described 
below by Charles Miner, in hi sllistory of Wyoming : — 
" On the 13th and Idth of May the soldiers were sent 
forth, and at the point of the bayonet, with the most 
high-handed arrogance, dispossessed one hundred and 
fifty families ; in many instances, set fire to their dwell- 
ings, avowing the intention utterly to expel them from 
the country. Unable to make any efi'ectual resistance, 
the people implored for leave to remove either up or 
down the river, as with their wdves and children, in the 
state of the roads, it would be impossible to travel. A 
stern refusal met this seemingly reasonal)le request, and 
they were directed to take the Lackawaxen road as lead- 
ing most directly to Connecticut. But this wayconsisted 
of sixty miles of wilderness wdth scarce a house ; the 
roads were wholly neglected during the war, and they 
then beG:2:ed leave to take the Easton or Stroudsburg 
route, where bridges spanned the larger streams, still 
swollen by recent rains. All importunities were vain, 
and the peoj^le fled towards the Delaware, objects of 
destitution and pity that should have moved a heart of 
marble. About five hundred men, women and children, 



bo LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

with scarce provisions to sustain life, plodded their wea- 
rj way mostly on foot, the roa^s being impassable for 
wagons ; mothers carrying their infants, and pregnant 
women literally wading the streams, the water reaching 
to their arm-pits, and at night slept on the naked earth, 
the heavens their canopy, and scarce clothes to cover 
them. A Mr. John Gardner and John Jenkins, both 
aged men and lame, sought their way on crutches. Lit- 
tle children, tired with travelling, crying to their mo- 
thers for bread which the}^ had not to give them, sunk 
from exhaustion into stillness and slumber, while the 
mothers could only shed tears of sorrow and compassion, 
till in sleep they forgot their griefs and cares. Several 
of the unfortunate sufferers died in the wilderness, others 
were taken sick from excessive fatigue, and expired 
soon after reaching the settlements. A widow with a 
numerous family of children, whose husband had been 
slain in the war, endured inexpressible hardships. One 
child died, and she buried it as she could beneath a hem- 
lock log, probably to be disinterred from its shallow cov- 
ering and be devoured by wolves." 

A little mound, spread over with wild vines, lies by 
the old roadside in Salem, where this child was buried. 

'' One shocking instance of suffering is related by a 
survivor of this scene of death, it is the case of a 
mother whose infant having died, roasted it by piece- 
meals for the daily subsistence of her suffering chil- 
dren."* 

Elisha Harding who formed one of this party, says, 
that " the first night we encamped at the Capouse ; the 
second at Cobb's, the third at Little Meadows (Salem), 
cold, hungry, and drenched with rain, the poor women 

* Chapman. 



ISAAC TRIPP. 



69 



and children suffenn^r miicli. The fourth night at 
Lackawaxen, fifth at Bhjomington, sixth atShchuhi, and 
seventh on the Delaware, where the people disbanded, 
some going up and some down the river." 

Pennsylvania repudiated this ferocious conduct of the 
soldiers, and at once indignantly dismissed the respective 
companies engaged in proceedings so infamous.* 

After the Compromising law gave peace to the valley, 
Phillips returned, taking possession of his former farm. 

Timothy Keys, Andrew Hickman and Ilocksey, set- 
tled in Providence Township, in 1771. Six years later 
they were all killed by the Indians. 

keys was chosen Constable of Providence, June 30, 
1772.' Among the five first women in the Wyoming 
Valley, was the wife of Hickman. 

At this time the old Records inform us that "Augustine 
Hunt, one of ye Proprietors in ye Susquehanna Pur- 
chois has made a pitch of about one^ hundred and fifty 
acres of Land in Lockaworna township." 



ISAAC TRIPP. 



Among the names of the original Proprietors of the 
Susnuelianna Company, appears that of " Isaak Tryp." 

Emigrating to the Wyoming, in 1769, with the first 
Pioneer Company, and, finding the blockhouse at Mdl 
Creek in possession of the Pennymites, under Captam 
Ogden, Tripp and his -€ompanion8 made preparations 
to recapture a prize of such vital importance to their 
Colonial existence. 

Tripp himself, had seen some service in the J^rencU 



* Miner. 



TO LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

and Indian wars, of that period, while a few of his com- 
panions had been schooled in the raw exercises of the 
Militia of Connecticut. All however, were familiar 
with the use of the musket, for their flint guns, powder- 
horns, and shot bags, had often accompanied them in 
former days, in pursuit of game. 

But with their conceptions of military discipline or 
border life and warfare, they were here completely out- 
witted by the superior tact of the party in the block- 
house, under Captain Ogden. Ogden, " having only 
ten men able to bear arms, one-fourth only of his invad- 
ing foe, determined to have recourse to negotiation. A 
very polite and conciliatory note was addressed to the 
commander of the fortij^ an interview respectfully 
solicited, and a friendly conference asked on the subject 
of the respective titles. Ogden proved himself an ac- 
complished angler. The bait was too tempting. Pro- 
pose to a Yankee to talk over a matter especially which 
he has studied, and believes to be right, and you touch 
the most susceptible chord that vibrates in his heart. 
That they could out-talk the Pennymites, and convince 
them the Susquehanna title was good, not one of the 
forty doubted. Three of the chief men, were deputed 
to argue the matter, viz : Isaac Tripp and Benjamin 
Pollet, two of the executive committee, accompanied by 
Mr. Yine Elderkin. ]^o sooner were they within the 
block-house, than Sheriff Jenkins clapped a writ on 
their shoulders. — ' Gentlemen, in the name of the Com- 
monwealth of Pennsylvania, you are my prisoners !' 
'Laugh when we must, be candid when we can.' The 
Yankees were decidedly outwitted. By common con- 
sent the prisoners were transported to Easton jail, 
guarded by Captain Ogden ; but accompanied in no 



ISAAC TRIPP. 71 

hostile manner, by the thirty-seven remnants of the 
forty." * 

Tripp was liberated from jail by his friends at once, and 
returning again to the valley, was a continual actor in the 
seven years' conflict before it found a peaceful solution. 

Upon the old Records, the name of Isaac Tryp or 
Esq. Tryp, as he was familiarly termed, often occurs. 
At a meeting of the Susquehanna Company, held at 
Hartford, June 2d, 1773, for the purpose of electing 
officers for the Westmoreland Colony, Gideon Bald- 
win, Timothy Keys and Isaac Tripp were chosen Direc- 
tors or Proprietors of Providence. 

By reference to that curious body of fact and litera- 
ture — the Westmoreland Records — we find the first pur- 
chase of land in Providence, by Tripp, was made in 
1774. This was upon the flats subsequently known as 
" Tripp's Flats." As tlie deed, from its age and peculi- 
arity possesses some local interest it is inserted entire. 

" To all People to whom these Presents shall come. 
Know ye that I Daniel Adams of west-moreland, in ye 
County of Litchfield and Colony of Connecticutt, in New 
England, for and in Consideration of Ninety pounds 
Currant money, of Connecticutt, to me in hand. Paid 
Before ye Ensealing hereof to my full satisfaction by 
Isooc Tripp, Esq., of ye same town, County and Colony, 
aforesaid, ye Receipt whereof I am fully sattisfyed and 
contented and Do therefore freely, fully, and absolutely 
Give, Grant, Bargain, Sell, alienate, Convay, and Con- 
firm unto him, ye said Isooc Trypp, His Hairs, Execors. 
Adminors. and assighns, for Ever all and singular one 

* Miner. 



72 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

Certain Lott of land, Lying and Being in ye township of 
Providence, Known by No. 14, Lying on the west side of 
Lockawarna River, and Butted and Bounded as follows : 
abuting East on sd. River ; west on sd. town Line, 
North and South on Land Belonging to sd. Tripp, and 
Contains by Estimation 875 acres, be ye same more or 
Less, Reference being had to ye Survay of sd. town 
for ye more perticulerments. Bounds thereof to be and 
Remain unto him ye sd. Isooc tripp, and to his heirs, 
Execu — ors, or Admin — ors, or assigns for Ever free and 
clear from me, ye sd. Daniel Adams, or any Heirs, 
Execu — ors, or Admin — ors, or assigns, or any other 
Persons by from or under me or any part thereof, as 
witness my hand this 7th Day of July, in ye year of 
our Lord, 1774, and in ye 14th year of his majosties 
Raign. 

"Signed, sealed, and Delivered In Presence of 

" Danl. Adams. 

" Nathan. Denison and 

'' Saml. Slater, Jr. 
" Received ye above Deed to Record July ye 8th, 
A.D. 1774, and Recorded By me. 

" EzEKiEL Peirce, clcrk." 

Tripp, being one of the original proprietors of the 
Town of Providence, had already located himself within 
the old Indian clearing, as early as in the summer of 
1771. Providence at that time was designated as the 
" sixth town of ye Capouse Meadows." 

These flats, perpetuating the name of the first white 
settler upon them, are now in the possession of another 
branch of the Tripp family. 

Isaac Tripp, the grandson of Isaac Tripp the elder, 



ISAAC TKIPP. 73 

came into the valley in 1774, choosing this spot for his 
residence. 

They were both " taken prisoners in 1778, and two 
young men by the name of Keys and Hocksey ; the old 
gentleman they J^the Indians] painted and dismissed, 
but hurried the others into the forest (now Abington) 
above Liggitt's gap, on the warrior's path to Oquago. 
Resting one night, tiiey rose the next morning, travelled 
about two miles, when they stopped at a little stream of 
water. The two young Indians then took Keys and 
Hocksey some distance from the path, and were absent 
half an hour, the old Indian looking anxiously the way 
they had gone. Presently the death-whoop was heard, 
and the Indians returned, brandishing bloody toma- 
hawks and exhibiting the scalps of their victims. 
Tripp's hat was taken from his head, and his scalp ex- 
amined twice, the savages speaking earnestly, when at 
length they told him to fear nothing, he should not be 
hurt, and carried him off prisoner." '^ 

Finding him apparently happy and harmless, the 
Indians painted his face with their war-paint, which 
would enable him to pass with safety any body of In- 
dians he might chance meet on the war-path, and then 
allowed him to return to the Capouse again, where the 
next snmmer he was shot by the Indians who overran 
the valley. 

In the spring of 1803, two skulls and some human 
bones were found in Abington by Deacon Clark, upon 
the edge of the little brook passing through Clark's 
Green, and were at that time supposed to be, as they 
probably were, the remains of Tripp's two companions. 

* Miner. 
4 



74 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

Isaac Tripp the elder was shot by an Indian, in 1Y79, 
within speaking distance of the fort at Wilkes Barre. 
This was done under such singular circumstances, that 
we will relate the facts. 

At the time of the Revolutionary War, the British 
often offered large rewards for the scalps of Americans. 
This was done for the purpose of inciting the savages to 
more murderous activity, and to annoy and exterminate 
the frontier settlements as fast and frightfully as pos- 
sible. As Tripp was a man of some little prominence 
among his associates, the Indians were often asked by 
the British why he was not killed ? They replied, 
" Tripp was a good man." He was a Quaker, and his 
intercourse with the Indians had been so universally 
kind and conciliatory, that when he fell into their hands 
as a prisoner, in 1778, upon the flats of Capouse, they 
were not disposed to harm him, but let him go, after 
painting his face with war-paint, as it was their custom 
to do with those they did not wish to harm. 

A short time after this, Tripp was sent to Hartford, 
Connecticut, to represent the wants and the grievances 
of the Wyoming Colony, and he very naturally removed 
this paint from his face. 

After his return, a double reward was offered for his 
scalp, and having forfeited their protection by displacing 
the war-paint, was shot and scalped the first time he 
was discovered. 



The meadow lot, No. 13, in Lockawarna, was sold to 
Jeremiah Blanchard, for fifty pounds of lawful currency, 
by Dr. Joseph Sprague, one of the proprietors in the 



ISAAC TRIPP. 75 

town. This sale, the records inform ns, was made on 
the " 27th day of Maj, and in ye 12th year of ye reign 
of our Sovereign Lord, George ye 3d, King, &c., a.d., 
1772." 

John Stevens was a proprietor in ^' ye township called 
ye Capouse Meadow." As early as May, 1772, for the 
" Consideration of ye Love, Good will and affections I 
Have, & Do Bare towards my Loveing Son in Law 
John yoimgs, son to my wife Mary," he conveyed to 
Young a settling right at a place called " ye Capouse 
Meadow." 

In October, 1773, Maj. Fitch Alden purchased of 
John Stevens, of Wilkes Barre, " one Certain Lott of 
Land Lying in ye township of Providence on ye N'orth 
side of Lockaworna Kiver; sd. Lott is known by Num- 
ber two & Contains 370 acres." Fifteen pounds lawful 
currency was the price given. 

It does not appear that Fitch, Young, or Stevens 
ever settled in the forest of the Lackawanna, for its 
attractions at this period were few. Fitch sold his land 
in 1774 to John Alden, for eighty pounds New York 
currency. 

It must be borne in mind, that after the original sur- 
vey of the Connecticut Indian Purchase of the Susque- 
hanna Company, all the land thus embraced within their 
survey was laid out in lots or rights, many of which lay 
for years unimproved by a " pitch," while others were 
sold, by the proprietors of each town, for a small sum, 
and resold by the purchaser to any person who dare 
risk fortune or life among Indians, panthers, and wolves. 



76 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 



EAELY EMIGRATION. 



Previous to 1800, the settlement in the valley had 
made but little progress. 

The French and Indian wars, the 02)posing claims of 
Pennsylvania and Connecticut to the lands of West- 
moreland, and the absorbing war of the Pevolution, all 
contributed to darken, and at times to render hopeless 
and appalling, the life of the early emigrant. 

In fact, the greatest obstacle to the accretion of the 
settlement here was the rival claims to the country 
along the Susquehanna and Lackawanna. 

As early as 1768, a body of adventurers from Phila- 
delphia came to Wyoming, taking possession of lands 
which, in 1762, had been claimed and settled by others, 
and from which they were driven by the Indians in 1763. 

This led to the alternate success or expulsion of one 
party or the other, for a period of seven years, embitter- 
ing the intercourse of the colony, and giving a sangui- 
nary character to inhabitants naturally quiet, industri- 
ous, and peace-loving. 

Many, too, of those whose humble cabins stood along 
the Lackawanna, returned to the Delaware after finding 
the valley so exposed to cruelty and invasion from every 
quarter ; others moved down nearer the forts in Wyom- 
ing, so as better to avoid surrounding danger. 

Eighty-eight years ago, the settler fought against 
enemies more savage and exasperated than the yellow 
panther or the bear ! People in our easy day, can 
hardly estimate the exposure and insecurity of that time. 
The pioneer, as he toiled on the plain or in the narrow 
clearing, kept closely at his side his sharpened knife and 



ISAAC TEIPP. 



77 



loaded mnsket, expecting every rustle of the leaf 
to announce the stealth}^ approach of the savage. And 
even when they slept in their lonely cabins, their arms 
stood freshly primed beside them. 

The following persons were residents of the Lacka- 
wanna Yalley for a longer or shorter period between 
1769 and 1776 : 



Names. 


Where Settled. 


When. 


Remarks. 




Erected the first stock- 


Thomas Brown 


Pittston 


1169 


ade here. 
Both slain in the Indian 


John Brown 


ti 




battle. 


Danl. St. John 


(( 


II'ZO 


Massacred in 1118, 
Erected first cabin i7i 


Zebulon Marcy 


(( 


u 


the valley. 
Purchased of Zebulon 


Ebenezer Marcy 


C( 




in 1111. 
First Collector in Pitts- 


Samuel Harden 


Lackawanna 


1711 


ton. 
First permanent settler 


Barnabas Carey 


(( 


u 


above the Lacka- 
wanna falls or rapids. 


Arter French 


(( 


" 


One " settling right" 


John Frazier 


(( 




1 was voted to each 


Timothy Reme, Jr. 


(( 


(( 


' one of these in 


Stephen Harden 


u 


" 


" Lockaworna." 


Caleb Bates 


u 


'* 


Isaac Tripp, the 
elder 


Capouse 


a 


Emigrated to Wyoming 

in 1169 
First physician in the 


Dr. Joseph Sprague 


Lackawanna 


" 


valley. 


Martin Nelson 


(( 


" 


Voted a right. 
Emigrated to Wyoming 


Solomon Johnson 


Capouse 


(( 


in 1169. First Col- 
lector in Providence. 


Frank Phillips 


Lackawanna 


(( 


Right voted. 


Augustus Hunt 


u 


(( 


A proprietor. 








^ Tomahawked in Ab- 


Timothy Keys 


Providence 


(( 


V ington, near Clark's 


Solomon Hocksey 


" 


" 


j Green, 1118. 


Andrew Hickman 


(( 


a 


Killed at Capouse, 1118. 


Samuel Carr 


Lackawanna 


1112 




Daniel Allen 


u 


u 


1 All forfeited their 


Rickard Wert 


(( 


" 


1 bonds. 


Peter Matthews 


{( 


u 


J 



78 



LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 



Name. 


Where Settled. 


When. 


Remarks. 


Frederic Curtis 


Providence 


1773 


Lived by trapping bea- 
ver. 


Isaac Tripp, the 
younger 


Capouse 


1774 


Located in the "Indian 
clearing." 


Thomas Pukits 


"Town of ye Ca- 
pouse Meadow." 


(( 


Soon removed. 


Wm. Shoy 


Pittston 


" 


Purchased of Hickman. 


John Dewit 


Capouse 


(1 


Half right voted. 


Wm. Hopkins 


Pittston 


(( 


Purchased of Bates. 


Isaac Baldwin 


u 


" 


Purchased of Moses 

Utler. 
Cabin stood near the 


James Leggett 


Providence 


1775 


mouth of Leggett's 
brook. 


Gideon Baldwin 


(( 


(( 




Jonathan Haskall 


Pittston 


" 


Sold to Phillips his 
" pitch." 


1 Jonathan Parker 


" 


" 



One of the famous " Boston tea party " visited Ca- 
pouse Meadow in the fall of 1776, with a view of making 
it his permanent residence, but while he was looking 
forward to the coming spring as the most suitable time 
to emigrate here with his family, he was taken ill and 
died. 

JAMES leggp:tt. 



That swift, loose-tongued tributary of the Lackawanna, 
leaping along the rocky staircase in the gap of the 
mountain between Abington and the valley, " Leggett's 
Creek," derived its name from Mr. Leggett. 

He was from " ye Province of New York," and liis 
axe was the first to swing in the deep forest where now 
lies the Heermans' farm."^ 

* This farm successively passed through the hands of Abraham 
Stanton, John Staples, David Thayer, James Leggett, James Bagley, 
Elephean Spencer, and McKeel, before it reached those of Harry Heer- 
mans. 



J AM KB LKGGKTT. 79 

By iin original draught of the Town ot* Capouso, or 
Providence, this land fell into the hands of Abraham 
Stanton. This was in 1772. As it was so wild and 
seemed so worthless to him he sold it the next year to 
John Staples. By a vote of the Susquehanna Company 
Staples's right to this property was declared forfeited, 
and in 177-J: it formed a basis for speculation by David 
Thayer. His investment proved unfortunate, and he 
soon became poor as former owners. June 24rth, 1775, 
he sold out several tracts of land lying in this portion of 
the Lackawanna to James Leggett, who was the person 
first making an improvement upon it. 

A little distance above the present gristmill of Jud- 
6on Clark, in Providence, Leggett cleared a small spot 
sufficiently large to show the fertility of the soil, where 
he erected his simple cabin, in 1775 ; but the treacher- 
ous, and often exciting aspect of border life, rendered 
sometimes appalling by the howl of the wolf or the 
wdioop of the red-man, contributed so little to his love 
of quiet, that he soon abandoned the place for a time, 
retiring to Wliite Plains. 

After the close of the Kevolutionary War, he again 
took possession of his land here, living upon it a num- 
ber of years, and upon this creek erecting the first saw- 
mill in this portion of the Lackawanna. 

That many others emigrated to the valley aiul left 
again without making a permanent pitch, there can be 
no doubt, while many of those thus onunu'rated becom- 
ing discouraged or alarmed during the Avar, sought the 
larger and safer settlement in Wyoming or at San- 
bury. 



80 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 



FIRST ROAD FROM PITTSTON TO THE DELAWARE. 

The nearest point from the Westmoreland Colony to 
the abode of the whites, was to the Delaware — a dis- 
tance of about forty miles. From this, the valley was 
separated by a country whose general features partook 
strongly of the sternness of the times ; and the interven- 
ing wilderness, frowning with wild beasts and the un- 
subdued savage, had through it no other road than that 
hurriedly constructed by the emigrating party from 
Connecticut, in 1769. 

This followed the warrior's trail, and was formed in a 
very indistinct manner, by simply removing the larger 
trees and a few of the more troublesome stones. 

Paths through the forest, made by the tread of the 
Indian for centuries, or tree-marks of the pioneer axe- 
man or hunter, furnished the only guidance along the 
profound wilderness. 

This natural privation to every frontier settlement— 
the absence of roads — and the necessity of a better com- 
munication with the parent State, or nearer villages 
along the Delaware, induced the proprietors and settlers, 
as they held their meeting in Wilkes Barre, October, 
2d, 1Y72, to vote " that Mr. Durkins of Kingstown, Mr. 
Carey of Lockaworna, Mr. Goss for Plymouth, Mr. 
Danl. Gore for wilkesbarre, Mr. william Stewart 
for Hannover, are appointed a comtee to Draw sub- 
scriptions & se what they Can Git sighned by ye ad- 
journed meeting for ye making a Pode from Dilieware 
Piver to Pitts-town." 

At the adjourned meeting, held October 5th, 1772, it 
was " voted that Esq. Tryp, Mr. John Jenkins, Mr. Phil- 



FIRST ROAD FROM PITTSTON TO THE DELAWARE. 81 

lip Goss, Mr. John Durkins, Captain Bates, Mr. Daniel 
Gore, Mr. william Stewart are appointed Comtee-men 
to mark out ye Rode from Dilleware River to Pitts- 
town," etc. 

This committee were to act until the completion of 
the road. October 19th, 1772, " voted that Esq. Tryp 
is appointed to oversee those persons that shall from 
time to time be sent out from ye severall towns to work 
on ye Road from Dilleware River to this place & so 
that ye work be Done according to ye Directions of ye 
Comtee, that was sent out to mark out ye Road," etc. 

This herculean task, at that day, was commenced in 
ISTovember 1772 ; every person who owned a settling- 
right in the valley, as well as those living upon " ye 
East Branch of the Susquehanna River " contributing 
towards its construction. 

Wages paid then for the necessary labor would hardly 
be deemed tempting to the idler of to-day, for it was 
" voted, that those Persons that shall Go out to work 
on ye Rode from Dilleware River to ye westermost part 
of ye Great Swamp Shall Have three sillings ye day 
LawfuU money for ye time tliey work to ye Exceptance 
of ye overseors ; and from ye Great Swamp this way, 
shall Have one shilling and sixpence pr. Day and no 
more," etc. 

Tripp, who was appointed to oversee the work, was 
allowed " Five Shillings LawfuU money pr. Day." 

This road — a road quite as important in its conse- 
quence, to the inhabitants of that day as any railroad 
communication subsequently has been to the valley — 
was at length completed, and it is said to have been very 
judiciously located. 

4* 



S:^ 1 VOK \NY ANN V V \l \ KY. 



Mil Vr \ K Y OKI? A N I-' \ ru'>N . 

^Vholl this iwid \vas built, tinios woro porilous iiuiood. 
As oarlv :is l7Ti\ it was voted that oaoh sottUn- should 
provide hiiuselt with a tliut loek and aiuinuuitioii, and 
cvntinue to iriiani mui scout around the sertlenieut. 

Th^\ie gvuuine outlets to Yankee patriotism — **7ra/Vj- 
in</ (/ij_6> '"- -seem hove to have had a hurried ineep- 
tion. 

At a uieetiiii; vn" the iuhalnt^iutii and proprietors held 
Maivh i?i*d, 1 7 To, it was voted "that the Oomtee ot' 
Settlors be IX^sired to send to tlie several towns or to 
their Ooiutee RequiriniT them to Call all the Inhabitants 
in Kaeh of ye said towns to meet on Thui-sday Next at 
five a Olook in ye attornoou on sd. Pay in some Oon- 
vouiont place in sd. town, and that tliey then Chouse 
one Person in Kaeh ot' sd. towns as an otHcer to muster 
thorn vV: so that all aro ^nnpiipt acci^niino: to Law with 
tiro arms and ammunitions, vV that they Ohuso two Ser- 
givnts vV: a Olerk, vV: that the sd. ChietV otHcer is llerobv 
Commanded A: Dirocted to Call yo Inhabitants together 
once in 14 Days tV^r ye future until this Company oniers 
otherwise, vV that in Case of an allarm or ye appearance 
of an Enemy, he is Diivcted to Call ye sd. Inhabitants 
together v^ st5\nd for ye Defense of ye sd. towns ^V- settle- 
ments without any furiher onier."* 

Orxler and discipline were not only oWerved in a 
military jxMut of \iew% hut wore carried into every 
social, cx^mmercial and domestic arnuigoment. 

Thus by paying a trille, settlers had voted to them au 



UELKilON, TKMI'KiiANCK, ANJJ BTILL-JIOUBEB. 83 

ear 7ri/ir]c for ca,ltlc and blioep. Tlio Jtocordn tell us that 
" JoHcph HtaplcB, IjIh Ear mark a hXj^uarc Hole tlirough 
ye Left Ear." "JobTryjj ye 2nd, His Ear mark — a 
Brnootli CroBH of ye i^eft Ear, Ai a Half jxiurie ye fore 
Hide of i'^ack Ear." '' WilJiain Jtay/iold, IiIb Ear mark 
a swallow's tail in ye lei't Ear <^ a Half Cross on ye 
Jtigljt Ear. 

''Mwiitvi'A April 28tli, 1774, pr. me Ezekiel Pierce, 
Clerk." 

JoIjm J^liil lip's ear mark was " a smootli cross of ye 
Jti^lit Ear &; a Half jjeuney ye fore side ye same." 

8 wine, too, liad rigid laws imposed upon them. 

A wandering one having intruded or broken into Mr. 
KufiJB J.awrence's field of oats, " back in tlie woods," 
damaging thereby 15 bushek of oats, " August ye 23d, 
1777, then ye above stray Hog was sold to ye Highest 
J>id<ler, & Simon Hodds was ye Highes Bidder, and 
Jiid her of at 

D. 1 3 8 

Constable fees for Posting the Hog 2 8 

And teavil to Kingstown District 1 3 

Selling ye Hog 03 

Clerk's fees for Eatiring, &c 1 



1 10 9 



RELIGION, TEMPEEANCE, AND STILL-HOUSES. 

As there are no Colonial nor private records to be 
found of the early Church movements in the Lacka- 
wanna Valley, even if any were made at the time, it is 
extremely difficult, if not quite impossible, to form any- 
thing like a correct estimate of the moral and religious 
standard of the settlers at that day. 



84: LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

For religions purposes alone, tlie old Christian Clinrch 
standing in Hyde Park was the first one erected in the 
valley, with one exception. This was built in 1836. 
Some six years previous to this, a church had been 
built in Carbondale. The plain, substantial school- 
houses or the log cabin of the settler standing in some 
narrow clearing, furnished hospitable points where meet- 
ings were held before this time. 

The old French war commencing in 1Y54 and lasting 
nine years, checked religious advancement throughout 
the borders of New England, while the Indian wars sub- 
seqent to that period, the Revolutionary struggle, as 
well as the intestinal one in Wyoming, all seem to have 
been in their influence as fatal to morals as to life. 

" Bundling," that easy, but wicked habit of our grand- 
fathers, appears to have been wonderfully prevalent at an 
early period along the valley, as well as in many other 
portions of country, and was not unfrequently attended 
with consequences that might naturally have been 
looked for. Besides this, there is every reason to believe 
that the current morals of the day had the greatest libe- 
rality of standard, and that one prominent and almost 
universal characteristic of the people was, the real love 
of wMsky. 

Indians, however, were not permitted to drink the 
inspiring " fire-water," as can be seen by a vote of '' the 
Propriators and Settlers Belonging to ye Susquehannah 
Purchase Legolly warned and Held In Wilksbarre, 
December Yth, 1772. Yoted that Asa Stevens, Daniel 
Gore and Abel Reine are appointed to Inspect into all 
ye Houses that Sell or Retail Strong Drink, that no 
Person or Persons shall at any time Hereafter Sell or. 
Lett any Lidion or Indions Have any Strong Drink on 



RELIGION, TEMPERANCE, AND STILL-HOUSES. 85 

forfiture of liis or their Settling Right or Rights, and 
also forfit ye whole of ye Remamder of their Liquor to 
this Company, and that ye Comtee above are appointed 
to take care of ye Liquor Lnmediatel}^" 

The Yankee-like and profitable provision of having 
the liquor forfeited, and the immediate care that no 
doubt was directed to it by those to whom it was thus 
intrusted, did not prevent its sale to the Indians, who 
w^ere extremely turbulent and dangerous when under its 
influences. In fact, their w^omen, during their drunken 
frolics, were often cruelly beaten, and sometimes badly 
wounded. 

Measures still more stringent and severe were adopted 
by the inhabitants a short time after this, to prevent 
access to it by the neighboring savages. It was "voted 
that no Person or Persons, settlers or forrinors Coming 
into this place, shall at any time hereafter Sell or Give 
to any Indian or Indians any Spiritous Lickquors on ye 
forfitures of all such Lickors and ye whole of all their 
Goods and Chatties, Rights and Effects that they Have 
on this Purchase ; and also to be voted out of this Com- 
pany, unless upon some Extraordinary reason, as sick- 
ness, etc., without Liberty first had and obtained of ye 
Comtee of Settlers, or Leave from ye Comtee that is 
appointed to Inspect into them affairs, etc." 

In 1YY2 there was but one licensed house in the valley 
to sell spirituous liquor. This Committee, composed of 
Avery, Tripp and others, met in Wilkes Barre in June, 
1772, " at six a Clock in ye forenoon," where, in the 
simple language of the times, they resolved that 
" Wheros there is and may be many Disorders Com- 
mitted by ye Retailing of Spiritous Lichquor in Small 
Quanteties Both to ye Indion Katives, which Disorders 



86 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

to prevent it is now Voted, that there shall be but one 
Publick house to Eetail Spcriteous Lichquors in small 
Quontcties in Each of the first towns, and that Each 
Person for ye Purpose of Retailing, as aforesd. shall 
be appointed by The Comtee they Belong; and that 
they and each of them shall be under the Direction of 
sd. Comtee, by whom they are appointed, Not Pepug- 
nant to ye Laws of the Colony of Connecticutt, and that 
such Petailors that shall not Dnly observe such Direc- 
tions and Restrictions as they shall severally receive 
Irom sd. Comtee, shall on Complaint made to this Com- 
pany, sliall see Cause to Inflict, Not Exceeding his or 
their Settling Pight, Pcgard being Had to ye Nature 
and agrcvation of ye offence."* 

At this time there was no still-house in the Colony. 
An embargo was, for a short time, laid upon the trans- 
])ortation of grain. Dec. 18, 1Y72, it was voted at the 
Town Meeting, " that no Person or Persons Now Belong- 
ing to the Susquhannah Purcliase, from the IStli Day 
of this present December, until ye first Day of May 
Next, shall sell to any person or Forrinor or Stranger 
any Indian Corn, Pye or Wheat to Carry Down the 
Piver out of ye Limits of this Purchase." 

In fact, the amount of grain then raised both in 
Wyoming and Lackawanna, was so scanty and limited, 
that within all the country now embraced by Luzerne 
County, no half hushel- measure was required until 1772. 
It was then voted " that this Compan}^ shall at ye Cost 
& Charge of this Company as soon as may be, send out 
to ye Nearest County town in ye Coloney's, & Pro- 
cure a Sealed Half Bushel & a peck measure & one 

* Records. 



RELKJION, TEMPERANCE, AND BTILL-IIOUSEB. 87 

Gallon pot, Quort pott, point pot, IhiU' point & Gill 
measures, for a Standard and Ilule for tlils Coni[)aiiy to 
by soon as may, and also sutable weights as ye J.aw 

Provides, etc." 

Nothinjr, probably, contributed more towards estab- 
lishing still-houses here than the absence of any other 
market for grain after it began to be raised in abun- 
dance. Whisky had a coinmercial importance better 
suited to the people than the depreciated and almost 
worthlessness of the Continental currency. A gallon of 
whisky being worth 20 cents, was considered ecpiivalent 
to a bushel of rye. To Easton, a distance of nearly 
70 miles through the wilderness, wheat was sometimes 
taken in huge wagons, and exchanged for large iron- 
kettles for boiling maple sap into sugar. The journey 
generally took a week, and the wheat l)rought from 70 
to 80 cents j^er bushel. The kettles were hired out to per- 
sons having sa])- woods; one pound of maple sugar being 
given for every gallon it held, for the use of a kettle one 
year. The sugar was worth live cents per pound. 

Tlie isolated condition of the settlers, though stem 
and sombre in many respects, was not without its 
gleams of light. When the wool was gathered from 
the sheep, or the well-dressed flax ready for the spindle, 
the young and blooming girls, according to the custom 
of the people, assembled at some point in the neighbor- 
liood, generally under the shade of some tree, witli their 
''si)inning-wheels;" where, in a single afternoon, knot 
iifter knot of yarn came from their nimble hands, which 
afterwards was probably wove and whitened into sheets 
for the coming bride. Dressed in neat red-dyed fabrics, 
manufactured by their own tidy hands, they brought, 
with their simple gear and glowing cheeks, more artless 



88 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

pleasure, and gave more natural charms to the maidens 
than all the spurious hats and diamonds are able to 
bestow upon the too often thoughtless wearer of to-day. 

In the clear, crisp edge of evening, came troops of 
boys from remote parts of tlie valley, on foot or on 
horse-back, as was tlien the custom to travel from place 
to place ; if women rode, they rode behind the man 
upon the horse's back. As the sj^inning ceased, the 
enjoyments of the evening commenced. The supper- 
table was now spread by clean hands, with rye-bread, 
pumpkin-pies, dough-nuts, and " Jonny-cake," and per- 
haps by a mug of beer or the richest milk ; when all 
gathered around the honest fare, and many a good wish 
and sweet word was whispered behind a pile of dough- 
nuts or a friendly glass of beer. Some boisterous games 
or wild sports closed up the amusements of the evening; 
when, in the soft light of an autumn moon, the "gals" 
— as all women at that day w^ere called — wended their 
w^ay slowly homeward w^ith their beaux. 

In accordance with the New England habit, Saturday 
night, if any^ was observed instead of Sunday evening. 
With the sunset of Saturday night all labors closed until 
the following Sunday at sundown. The youth went to 
see his sweet-heart on Saturday evening, as it then was 
considered the regular time for courting. As " many 
hands make light work " the older people often met for 
a " logging bee," — a way of destroying logs, by rolling 
them in heaps and burning them ; which was at one 
time the only mode of getting rid of some of the finest 
timber growing in a new country, before railroads, with 
their iron nets, caught the forest from the spoiler's hand- 
spike. 

The coarser grain raised in the valley being turned 



RELIGION, TEMPERANCE, AND STILL-HOUSES. 89 

into the still-house, made whisky so cheap that no 
"logging bee," "husking," "raising," nor any of the 
social gatherings of the early settlers took place without 
the inspiring product of the still. 

The spread of vice and immorality absorbed some 
attention in the Wyoming Yalley, four years after the 
date of its settlement. A committee, consisting ot 
" William Stewart, Isaac Tryp, Esq.," and others were 
appointed, February 16th, 1773, " to Draw a plan in 
order to suppress vise and Immorality that abounds so 
much amongst us, and Carry ye same Before ye 'Next 
meeting." ^ 

Twenty-five years later, we find the 'progressive spirit 
of the times recorded in the following curious deed of 
land, bearing date August 13th, 1798, from Baldw^in 
and Faulkner to Joseph Fellows. 

" Know all Men by these Presents, that we Waterman 
Baldwin & Robert Faulknier, both of Pittstown in the 
County of Luzerne, in the State of Pennsylvania, being 
desirous to promote the interest and general Welfare 
of said Pittstown, and to encourage and enable Joseph 
Fellows of the said Town, County and State, To erect 
a Malt-house and Beer-house, which we conceive will 
prove of general utility to our neighborhood^ as also in 
consideration of Fifty cents to each of us paid by the 
said Joseph Fellows to our full satisfaction, &c., sell to 
said Fellows a certain piece of land for the purposes 
just named." 

Two or three years later than this, eight still or beer- 
houses stood along the Lackawanna, from its mouth up 
to the upper border of the Capouse, in successful oper- 

* Westmorelaad Kecords. 



90 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

ation, viz : Asa Dimock's and Joseph Fellows in Pitt- 
ston township ; Hubbnts, in Lackawanna ; Benjamin 
and Ebenezer Slocum's two, in Slociim Hollow (now 
Scranton) ; Yaughn and Stevens, in Providence ; and 
Stephen and Isaac Tripp each had one upon Tripp's 
Flats ; all distilling the rich and surplus corn and rye. 
Being located, as it were, almost before every door, 
they drew from the ripened grain the wished-for bever- 
age, which then was in common use from the cradle to 
the grave. Children put to sleep by eating bread soaked 
in whisky, gave little trouble to the mother or nurse, 
and were said to grow rapidly in stature and good 
nature. 

As gold or silver rarely found its way to the settle- 
ment, and as the Revolutionary scrip was of no real 
value then, the commercial agency of whisky was 
recognized by the trader quite as much as beads or 
wampum by the Indians. 

One of the most desirable locations of coal property, 
sloping down into the valley, was sold some sixty years 
ago, as will be shown, for five gallons of whisky. 

All these still-houses were better patronized at that 
day than any church in the valley, whose spires point 
to a better world, has subsequently been. 

As late as 1788, the only person recommended to the 
Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, as fit to 
keep a house of entertainment in Pittston, was Water- 
man Baldwin. He seemed to have been unworthy of the 
position, for in 1789 he was indicted for keeping a 
tippling house and fined five pounds. 

The next person in the valley receiving a license 
from the Governor of Pennsylvania was Jonathan 
Davies, in 1791. 



MILLS AND FORGES. 91 



MILLS AND FOKGES. 

For a time, logs rolled up in their primitive state into 
the rough log-house, or barks peeled from the tree, and 
shaped by the aid of poles into the wigwam-like cabin, 
formed the only dwellings of the pioneer. Bark, or 
the tree itself ungracefully split by the beetle and wedge 
into layers, afibrded roofing, whose special purpose 
seemed to be to let in every element, with little regard 
to economy. 

There are probably few streams in the State furnish- 
ing water-power of such extent and durability as the 
Lackawanna and its various tributaries ; more especially 
the Koaring Brook, which offers, within every mile of 
its course, no less than three or four water-privileges for 
mills and the lesser kind of machinery. 

In the summer of 1774, a saw and grist-mill were 
built upon the Lackawanna, below " Ye Great Falls in 
the Lackawanna River." These were built by the town. 
The same year these both were purchased by Solomon 
Strong, and from him they passed into the hands of 
Garrit Brinkorkoof, July 6, 1775. 

This was then in Pittston, and they were the first 
mills standing along this stream. Both of these were 
swept away by the spring freshets, a few years later. 

The great and growing want of sawed lumber, as the 
settlement began to assume more developed proportions, 
combined with the admirable water-fall, induced Solo- 
mon Finn — or Elder Finn, as he was called, from the 
fact of his being a rigid Baptist — and Elephat L. 
Stevens to build a saw-mill in 1780, nearer the mouth 
of this stream. 



92 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

Down the steep bank opposite the remains of the old 
still-house of Barnams, totter the grey walls of a de- 
parted grist-mill, once standing upon the foundation of 
this saw-mill. Its clatter and its usefulness long since 
have passed away. 



OLD FORGE AND DK. SMITH. 

One of those unusual characters who give color and 
shape in a great measure to the community around 
them was Dr. William Hooker Smith. Having a win- 
ning and a superior tact, he was enabled to take hold 
of the afiections of the inhabitants of Wyoming Yalley, 
which he retained as the chief physician for a long 
period of years. He was a citizen of influence and pro- 
perty. Among the first justices appointed under the 
State of Pennsylvania to hold the courts of the county, 
appears that of Dr. Smith. He represented the 5th Dis- 
trict, and his commission is signed by Benjamin Frank- 
lin, bearing date May 11, 178T. Franklin, it will be 
recollected, was President of the Supreme Executive 
Council of Pennsylvania at this time. 

Upon the old Westmoreland Becords his name 
appears as buying land in the District of Wilkes 
Barre, in 1774. He came " from ]^orth Caster, West 
Chester County, in ye Province of New York," in 
1772. 

His remarkable acuteness of perception is exhibited 
nowhere so boldly as upon tlie Luzerne county records, 
where are recorded his purchases of the right to " dig 
iron ore and the mineral called stone-coal^ or any other 
mineral as he the said Smith may think proper to dig 



OLD FOEGE AND DK. SMITH. 93 

These purchases, considered then so vision- 
ary by the inhabitants, who knew nothing of the nature 
nor the existence of coal, were made between the years 
of 1791 and 1798, in the townships of Exeter, Ply- 
mouth, Pittston, Providence and "Wilkes Barre. The 
first is made July 1, 1791, of Scot of Pittston, who, for 
the sum of five shillings, Pennsylvania money, sold 
" one half of any minerals, ore of iron, or other metal 
which he, the said Smith, or his heirs, or assighns, 
may discover on the hilly lands of the said John Scot 
by the red spring." 

While these purchases were the result of the superior 
foresight of Smith, stone coal and iron ore lands pos- 
sessed so little value here that their owners were glad 
to exchange them for a mere nothing. 

In 1850 these old claims passed into the hands of 
G-. P. Steele, and the same year to their present owner, 
James R. Snowden, of Philadelphia. 

Among the many anecdotes related of the doctor, 
none exhibit more of the shrewd peculiarity of the 
man than the following one. 

Possessing many scientific notions which were not 
readily comprehended by people around him, he was 
suspected more than once in his life of making counter- 
feit Spanish dollars. Once, in fact, he was arrested for 
passing what was supposed to be a spurious silver dol- 
lar upon a merchant whose store stood near the doctor's 
residence. He had been told by the merchant that if 
anything of the kind was ever passed upon him, trouble 
would follow. 

The doctor, always ripe for any encounter partaking 
of fun, and wishing to give action to the naturally 



94 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

irruptive nature of the merchant, put some alum and 
milk into an iron skillet and placed it over the fire. 
He now threw into the heating mixture a good Spanish 
dollar, leaving it until it was white with heat; then 
taking it out of the vessel and wrapping it quickly up 
into a paper, gave it to one of his boys, telling the little 
fellow to run to the store as fast as possible and buy a 
piece of chalk. 

The suspicious store-keeper unfolding the paper, took 
the glistening coin in his hand. His fingers were soon 
burned and blistered. With an oath he threw the coin 
down upon the fioor, saying to the lad that he would 
bring the change himself. As the doctor was enjoying 
the joke in an eminent degree, in came the enraged 
merchant, whose abuse was so violent that it became 
necessary to eject him summarily from the house. 
After the lapse of a few hours, a constable, accompa- 
nied by the prosecutor, and his posse, marched Dr. 
Smith before a justice of the peace. That he had 
passed the objectionable money he admitted, but that 
it was good or bad could only be told by his chemicals 
and assistance. As the squire nor the party would 
trust neither, the suspected coin had to be sent to 
Wilkes Barre, a distance of twelve miles, in order to 
have the judgment of a silversmith passed upon it. In 
a small log cabin, standing by the roadside, the alleged 
counterfeiter was imprisoned during the absence of the 
messenger, guarded by two uneasy-looking men. These 
he jocosely proposed to bribe for ten dollars, but they 
too, looking upon his money with distrust, refused the 
tempting offer, so he was confined here thirty-six 
hours before the silversmith decided it was good 
silver. 



OLD FOKGE AND DR. SMITH. 95 

After being released lie refused to leave until remu- 
nerated for loss of time, practice, character, and false 
imprisonment. 

The storekeeper himself felt awkward in his own new 
and unsought position. His estimation of himself could 
hardly have been flattering, for his friends then deserted 
him, laughing at his useless and hasty course in arrest- 
ing a person of such worth, attainment, and standing, 
as Doctor Smith ! This shrewd genius, with his usual 
adroitness, gave such effective prominence to the idea 
of false imprisonment that, to settle the matter at once, 
the merchant turned over to the doctor the store and 
the goods, upon the condition that he would pay all 
costs of this suit and release him from damage. 

Dr. Smith opened liis own store the next day, and as 
long as he drank his whisky-toddy with his friends did 
he amuse the circle by relating this singular adventure. 
A good-humored and generous old gentleman now lives 
in the valley who recollects well, while a boy, offer- 
ing the money to the merchant. 

After accompanying Gen. Sullivan in his expedition 
against the Indians and Tories along the upper Susque- 
hanna in 17Y9, as chief surgeon to the army, he returned 
to the valley, locating himself upon the Lackawanna, 
near a place subsequently designated as " Old Forge," 
where first in the valley the trip-hammer sound rever- 
berated along its banks, or mingled with the wild bab- 
blings of its waters. 

This forge stood immediately below the rapids, or falls 
in the Lackawanna, and was erected upon the site of the 
grist-mill spoken of before, by Dr. William Hooker 
Smith and James Sutton, in the spring of 1789. 

Before these iron-works none existed in Westmoreland, 



\m 



l,A(!K AWANNA VAI.t.l'lY. 



(ixdpf- f;lioH(^ ill N('.vv|)(»rl, wliicli vv(ii-(^ in opcrjilioii m 
cjirly Jis 1777. 

rVom llic iiii|uir<5 iciJ.iirc, of iron ore, iiiid i\\r, (^\(|•(1m(5 
(lidiciilly (»r liii(liii«;- il, cvcd in Miis Hlin,|)(^, uh well uh i,li(^ 
iiiijx'i reel, niclliod l<iiovvii of pfodiicin^ iron IVom IIm^ 
r.'iw null* ri:il widioiit llid iiHMiHlJiDCd ol" hIoiic. (^ouI oi' 
nuicliiiicry, llio (>j)(H*n,t,i<>im ol* lliiH loi'/^-ci wvvv, iiccdHsjirily 
liniilcd. IlHcxir.'ict.ion in \)\c\. Ikmii*; Ji.llriHlcd willi moiHi 
I.'iJkh- limii icjil |»rolil, iillimjitc.ly coinix-licd il, 1,0 ho 
.Hl>iiMd()ii(^d. 

Two lircs .Mild one li'i|> liMiniucr riirniHii(Ml .-iIxmiI. lOO 
)»<>iiii«ls of iron ill Iwclvt^ lioiirs ; IIiih wjim j»i'iiici|>.'dly 

ImInCII II|> IIic SllK(|ll('Il}MIII!l I(iv(M" ill ho.'ilH. 

I )i-. Siiiilli, ill ISIO, iii.'idc^ .'I very Hiiit!;iiljir will, .'MkI in 
ISI.S lie died in 'l'niii< luiniiock, u\. llid ri|Mi jii^'c of !)(. 
Ill 1S;>S, liin licirH riuuMV^d iVoiii ( Ioii^ih^kk, llio huiii ol' 
$2,-100, ns pay ior Aclini; Siir<j^(M»ii, in llio IJin'oliiiioiuiry 
War.* 



Hld'I'M'.MION'l' oic Hl.odllM IIOI,l,OW, NOW H( )RA N'l'( )N. 

Tho w.'irrior'H pnlli IVoni llic Diduwnro to Wyoinlii^ 
cjiiiH^ iiilo Uio (1;i|>ous(^ ncMi* ilicuiorllicrn p.'irl of Scw.'ui- 
loii, ;ind wjiH, ln'lorci IIk^ jM'rivjd of \\n\ wliilc^K, |Ik5 only 
known tniil jipproMcliin;^' iJic valley iVoni IIk; (iasl. 

'riu'lirnl road Iniill in IIki adjoining coiiiily of W.'iyiio, 
Htarl(Ml from ( liislicl unk (n(»\v I ):i,iii;i,sciiw), ;ind r;in from 
Mi(in('<^ lo \V\<^ Mddy (NarrowslnirL;-), IJumicu t.o llio nar- 
rows on llu^ La(d<a,wa.x(Mi, lliroii^li l*aii])ac'k, SaJom, 
sIopiiiL'; into IImk old Indi.-iii nu^'idow, jiImhiI, one iiiilo 
al)ove Slociim I lollow. 

I*)ol'oro IliiH, liowdvcr, llic Sludiola or Oonnectic-uf I'oad 

* Miiwr. 



SKTTIilOMKNT OF HLOOUM JIOIJ.OVV. 97 

wjiHinar1<(Ml out, l)y tli(^ oarly (Miii^nuilH from llarMonl, in 
J7^>IK licin^ tli<; iicjinjsl, roul.c, it, wjik koI(;c,1,(;(|, und uh \t 
f'ollow(Ml tliis old tniil of t,ii(5 IndijiiiH, it, rccjuirc.d losH 
\ii\iov U> ^iv(; it, llui l(iW jKlvjint.a^cB it, ])(>hhohh(',(1 over tlio 
Hmr()ini(iiii^ wil<l(;rii(',MH. 

TIkj cIoho of tli<5 njvolutiorijiry Ht,ni<^f^I(5 natnrally 
awakened liojxjHof pcniiancrit, rcpoHc, to tlio inliabitantfl 
of a vall(!y well known to l)(5 fe.rtilo and invit,in<]^. 

ScittlorH l)(;^an t,o pour in IVotn New I<]n<^land, and 
inany who lia<l l)(3(;n <lriven Ironi t.lie eoiinlry by f,])o 
Hav.T^e aHHailantn, returned af^.'iin at't(;r tJi(5 arrow and t,lio 
liJiU'liet, no more ;i|»j)eared ;i,roiind tlieir lirci-Hidofl. 
Ainon/i; tluuii waK l*]iili|> Al>l><>tt,, wlio ret,nrned to M»o 
l.aekawanna Valley in 17Hf>, at tli(5 time t,li(!J renowned 
(Jol. Ktlian Allen, of Vermont, viHited Wyoniin^ Valley, 
with a view of forniini^ an indepcncJent Statxi oi' " W(»,Ht- 
inorelatid," with the (ya|>it.o] at WilkeH J>arr(!. I*hilij) 
waH a native ol' Windham connty, (Jonneetient, and had 
])rcviouHly owned j)ro])(5rty in Wyoming, whieh lie had 
diH|)OHed of, in 1777, to Jiin more daring l)rot,hcr .lames, 
who was anion^ the numlx'.r expelled hy the 'J'orieH and 
Indijuis the ennui n^ year. After ]*hili|) liad exph)red 
the fine water-j)ow(5r alon^ the Lackawanna, with a view 
of HUj)})Iyinf:^ the prcwint or any future want that agri- 
cultural devch)prncnt in tlie (JapouHO Meadow, or o1h(5- 
where along tlie valley, could not fail to inspire, ho 
cornrneneed to enict a mere miniature; corn or griHt-mill, 
nj)on the northern bank of the Roaring Hrook,"^ junt im 

* This brook wan (jailed Nay aiig or Naw-yaii;; l»y Uifi IiidianH. Tlio 
<'tyiii(»l<>;^^y of UiJH word in WHiicUiiiif^ in (ioiil>l. TIm^ HyllaMo m/— pro- 
nounced Dum, wjciiiH to liav<! hrcii aHHo<;ial,«-d with tlio idna of noiHc. — 
mmidhifi, or roarhf/, in the Indian lan,':;ii!i^r,., nn well iix in many other 

I.Ori'riU'H, — i'tlOF. <'/l.\l'»V AND J{(»(1KI! Wn.t.rAMH. 



98 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

it enters tlie Caponse region, and but a few rods above 
the location of the present grist-mill in Scranton, in the 
year 1788. 

Tliis was constructed in a manner simple, original and 
primitive, merely by elevating the mill-stones suffi- 
ciently from the necessary gearing beneath. A rude 
leather belt placed on the dnim of the water-wheel, 
then twisted and put on the spindle of the mill-stones, 
comprised the total and complete machinery of the mill. 
The flinty silicions stones first used here in this mill for 
grinding were brought from an adjoining ledge, and 
were as rudely shaped as was the mill itself. Slabs 
split or hewn from the tree, and barks lashed on with 
withes, composed the roof as well as the sides of this 
structure ; all of which was supported by six strong 
crotches cut from the sturdy saplings growing upon the 
banks of the stream. Its lolt was quite as unique and 
curious as any part of the contrivance, consisting of a 
dry deer skin completely perforated with small holes. 
This being operated entirely by hand, made the only 
separation of the flour from the coarse bran. An old 
gentleman, who has passed from among us, once told the 
writer that, while he was a mere boy, he often accompa- 
nied his father to this mill, and that while the grist was 
being ground he was compelled to shake this novel bolt, 
while "the old man and the miller got jolly on the' 
whisky punches in the house." Constructed so imper- 
fectly, it could for some time only crack the Indian corn 
for sainjp^ one of the greatest luxuries here at that 
period. 

James Abbott became interested in this propei'ty in 
October the same year, and in April, 1TS9, Reuben Tay- 
lor was associated with the Abbotts in the mill. They 



SETTLEMENT OF SLOCUM HOLLOW. 99 

also cut and cleared off a few acres of land immediately 
below this point on the bank of the brook. At this time 
only two other grist-mills were in all the vast area now 
embraced by Luzerne, Wyoming, Wayne, and Pike 
counties. Grists of grain were brought from the bor- 
dering counties to Slocum's mill, upon the backs of the 
poor pioneers, and sometimes even by hardy and heroic 
women, who undertook the journey alone and on foot, 
wdiile the husbands toiled for a sustenance in the nar- 
row clearing at home. In 1814, Timothy Stevens erected 
a grist-mill in Blakely, upon the Lackawanna, and two 
years later Edmund Harford commenced another one 
upon one of the fair-water tributaries of the Wallenpau- 
pack in Salem, Wayne county a short distance above 
the ancient '' Lackawa " settlement. 

In the spring of 1790, a Yankee, named Ilowe, pur. 
chased the mill from Messrs. Abbotts and Taylor. 

Taylor then took possession of the land now known 
as the Uncle Joe Griffin Farm, but, coming to the con- 
clusion that it would never be worth the trifling tax im- 
posed upon it, disposed of it at the first opportunity. 
Upon Stafford Meadow Brook, ^^ a little below Scranton, 
the Abbotts built a saw-mill which finally passed into 
the hands of the Slocums. 

A man named Gwin emigrated from i^ew Jersey, in 
1Y99, to " Slocurn Hollow," as this portion of Capouse 
was designated after 1798. Ilowe and Gwin built a log 
grist-mill, in 1804, upon one of the most southern 
branches of the Tunkhannock, now in Scott Township, 
and hence the impression by many, that the first mill in 
Slocum Hollow was built by them. In 1793, there 

* This brook took its name from Captain Jolin Rlr.^orl, 'vl.o mado his 
first purchase upon tlie head waters in 1777. 

tofc. 



100 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

stood here l)iit one house, which was occupied by John 
Howe and his family. 



THE SLOCUMS. 

Benjamin and Ebenezer Slocum settled here in 1798, 
when this infantile mill and its simple appurtenances 
passed into their hands by purchase. 

Roaring Brook, by its frequent fall and liberal cur- 
rent, offered to energy, capital or toil, productive return. 
The pine, Norway and sturdy, the hemlock and the oak, 
rose with such profuse majesty upon its banks, that 
comparatively little seemed the labor to tit them for a 
market. 

A saw-mill was built here by the Slocums, in 1799, 
after they had enlarged this pristine grist-mill. 

To the vigorous mind of Dr. Wm. Hooker Smith, the 
lower portion of the valley .was indebted for the con- 
ception and existence of a forge, which at this time 
was converting the raw ores into ready iron ; but no 
attempt to develop the mineral wealth of any other por- 
tion of it was made until the Slocums erected their forge 
in Slocum Hollow in 1800. Near the grist-mill and the 
extra dam already thrown across the stream, stood this 
forge with its fires and single trip-hammer, and from the 
bog ore, cropping out along the various creeks in the 
valley, was forged out the iron. Here these sun-burnt, 
energetic men, under the shadows of a projecting cliff, 
fashioned and worked their forge, and the sound of the 
trip-hammer and the roar of the waterfall formed the 
chorus of their domestic life. 

Not knowing the mechanical use of the anthracite 



THE SLOOUMS. 101 

coal blackening tlie creek sides around this forge, 
they had to depend solely upon charcoal for heating. 
Anthracite, in fact, was used nowhere in the United 
States for making iron until 1837, although hitummous 
coal was thus employed in England, for the same pur- 
pose, by Dudley, about one hundred years before. 

The ore, generally found in small ])ieces, was broken 
still finer and roasted, then phiced into the conical- 
shaped furnaces, constructed from stone, and the slag 
se})arated from the iron. In these furnaces it was mixed 
with the proper quantity of charcoal, then melted and 
separated from the slag. The cast-iron then being very 
brittle, was reduced to malleable-iron by heating again in 
a bed of charcoal, rolled into bjills, when it was caught 
and shaped by the clattering trip hammer into any de- 
sired form or size. 

Iron thus made here by the Slocums, is s^iid to have 
been fibrous in texture, very stout, and little liable to 
rust. About 25 per cent, was allowed for waste. 

The expense of thus making iron was found to be so 
considerable, that only its increasing demand for mill 
irons, blacksmith purposes, ])loughshares, etc., from 
many parts, but more especially from the Lake Country, 
enal)led them to maimfacture it with a living profit. 

Up until 1828, a period of twenty-eight years, was 
this productive forge ceaseless at work, and then the 
great difficulty of obtaining the necessary ore, some of 
which was brought from several miles up the Lacka- 
wanna, over a road winding among the close thick un- 
derbrush of the forest, the worn-out condition of the 
forge, combined with the imperative demands of otlier 
business, tended to its final neglect. 

In connection with this forge, a saw-mill, two distil- 



102 LACKAV7ANNA VALLEY. 

leries, find their grist-mill were successfully operated by 
the Slocums, who, in return for early investment and 
privations, began to receive ample and well-deserved 
remuneration. 

At various times, the Slocums had purchased land in 
the vicinity of the Capouse, and at the time of the death 
of Ebenezer, he owned some 1,700 acres — most of which 
was coal-land. 

Ebenezer and Benjamin, it will be recollected, were 
brothers to Frances Slocum, w^ho was taken prisoner by 
the Indians at Wilkes Barre, in 1778, and whose sad 
subsequent history, awakened throughout the country 
an interest so thrilling. 

The sister, Frances, died at Logansport, Indiana, in July, 
1853, among the red tribes wdio had taught her to love 
them, and whose habits had become her own. She left 
two daugliters, one of whom has since gone the way of 
her mother. 

Ebenezer himself was picked up by the savages at the 
same time. "The mother stepped up to the savage, 
and reaching for the child, said : ' He can do you no 
good ; see, he is lame.' With a grim smile, giving up 
the boy, he took Frances, her daughter, aged about five 
years, gently into his arms, and, seizing the younger 
Kingsley by the hand, hurried away to the mountains.'^* 

Strange as was this escape from life-long captivity or 
death, it was not more miraculous than an event in his 
history in 1808. At this time Ebenezer was engaged in 
removing: some slii>Iit obstruction about the race of the 
forge, when he accidentally fell into the current while 
the forge was in full operation. The negro, who was at 

* Miner. 



THE SLOCUMS. 103 

work with the trip-hammer at tlie time, sprang for a 
piece of wood, which, with great presence of mind, he 
placed under the hammer in such a manner as to arrest 
the motion of the water-wheel at once, leaving the 
buckets so in range with the race, that Slocum passed 
through with the current, coming out below the forge 
without sustaining any greater injury than the terrible 
fright the submarine journey gave him. What seems 
the most incredible is, that while Slocum was a man of 
more than liberal stature — weighing about two hundred 
pounds — he could pass alive through a race whose 
actual width was only eight inches ! 

His son Joseph yet retains the purse, etc., his father 
had in his pocket at the time of this remarkable adven- 
ture. Until after this impressive event, he never 
acknowledged the existence of another world. 

In 1810, although there were but three houses in 
Slocum Hollow, a postoffice was established here, 
and Maj. Slocum appointed Postmaster. Ten years 
later it was discontinued here, and the point upon the 
turnpike at Fellow's Corners selected as a more suitable 
place for the inhabitants in Providence to receive their 
letters and papers. 

The office itself was not exceedingly lucrative, for the 
mail was only brought here over the mountains from 
Easton ma Wilkes Barre once a week, upon horseback 
or by hand, and the grand total of the mail-bag in those 
times, for this destination, was often less than the mail 
matter now received each day by many business firms 
in the same vicinity. 

July 11, 1821, Ebenezer received a commission for 
Justice of the Peace. Previous to his death — which 
took place suddenly at Wilkes Barre — he had such a 



104 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

strong presentiment that " the Hollow " would at some 
period be a great place, that he often wished he could 
revisit it fifty years after his departure. Although half 
of the time has not yet expired, a portion of his land is 
so divided and parcelled out among the sons of toil, and 
so changed, that could we summon his spirit from the 
'' vasty deep," he could even now hardly recognize his 
former home. 

Elisha Hitchcock, Esq., moved into the country 
from l^ew Hampshire in 1809, and purchased land in 
Slocum Hollow in 1816. For a period of twenty-four 
years he was the only person in the upper portion of 
this secluded glen. He has lived to see the forest re- 
treat before the intruding axe-stroke ; and by his long 
years of usefulness, sobriety, and experience, has con- 
tributed no little to elevate and improve the generation 
around him. The fine brick mansion, standing on the 
slope of the hill northeast of Scranton, from which one 
of the prettiest views of the valley, with its close-headed 
hills, is had, and where the villages, reposing in its 
bosom, and the sturdy locomotive sweeping along the 
greensward, as if it were mere chess-play, the rich 
farms, and the shaded streams, all make up a picture 
framed by the Moosic range of mountain, is the present 
residence of the venerable old gentleman. 

After the forge in Slocum Hollow had ceased to 
operate, in 1828, there was nothing at this point to 
attract the attention of the passer but the saw and grist- 
mill and the busy still-house of the Slocums. In 1828, 
the North Branch Canal was commenced at Pittston, 
and it was hoped by many of the citizens along the 
Lackawanna that it might be extended up this stream 
as far as Slocum Hollow or Providence. Meetings 



THE HISTORY OF SCKANTON. 105 

were held in Hyde Park, Providence, and Blakely, for 
the purpose of urging upon the Legislature the propri- 
ety of extending " \h.Q feeder of this canal, or some other 
improvement, up the valley as far as would be thought 
of service to our citizens and the commonwealth." Al- 
though the moving spirit in these gatherings was 
Charles H. Silkman, the names of Thomas Griffin, 
"William Merrifield, Sylvenas Heermans, Elisha Hitch- 
cock, John Yaughn, William W. Winton, Moses 
Yaughn, Lewis S. Watres, and the veritable John Q. 
Smith, appear as a committee to correspond with the 
members upon the subject. "While these meetings 
denounced the " llacMeg drivellers^ in the shape of in- 
corporated companies," ^ they no doubt directed a little 
attention to the coal and iron hills along the valley, 
where nothing had been done yet in the way of their 
development, except by the simple operations of Dr. 
William Hooker Smith at Old Forge, by the Slocums at 
Slocum Hollow, and by the more comprehensive yet 
persecuted Maurice and William Wurts in the forest at 
Carbondale. 

It is a curious fact that the village of Scranton owes 
its inception to an effort made by the friends of the 
" Drinker Raih'oad " to get it constructed. Henry 
Drinker and William Henry, who were actively and 
prominently associated in this enterprise during a series 
of years of terrible commercial embarrassment and dis- 
aster, and who, after great pecuniary sacrifice and 
physical labor, could not infuse into the stubborn times 
the importance of this eastern outlet, although they 
themselves never despaired of ultimately seeing it 

* See Wilkes Barre Advocate, Dec. 19, 1838. 
5* 



106 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

opened, concluded to let the age ripen before again 
urging capitalists to look upon their proposed high- 
way. 

Years of reconnoissance along the western end of the 
contemplated route, made Henry so familiar with the 
mineralogical character of the country, that at a meeting 
of the friends of this road, held three days in Easton, in 
June, 1836, he expressed a belief that if an iron interest 
was awakened in the Lackawanna Yalley, a town would 
probably be built as well as the road. He proposed to 
the gentlemen present to erect a hlast furnace some- 
where on the route above Pittston, and if success 
attended the manufacturing of iron, as he was sanguine 
it would, it could not fail to accomplish in a short 
period of time the great desideratum years had failed to 
mature. Men composing this meeting were marked by 
strong good sense and liberal views, and yet this idea 
partook so much of the bold and the original, that with 
a single exception it received about the same attention 
from them as the public generally had given their own 
favorite project. Edward Armstrong, a gentleman of 
wealth, residing on the deliglitful east bank of the Hud- 
son, not only favored the proposition, but offered him- 
self to Mr. Henry as a partner in the purchase of land, 
and in the erection of such iron works at any point 
deemed most judicious by him, after a more minute sur- 
vey. Daring the summer of 1839, Mr. Henry traversed 
the country w^estward and southward, examining vari- 
ous places along the route, to find the best location. 

On the low, wild, narrow strip of land, lying almost 
in the forks of the Lackaw^anna and the Roaring Brook, 
from which Scranton itself seems to have exhaled.^ he 
found iron ore, the analysis of which proved so produc- 



THE HISTOIiY CF SCKANTON. 107 

tive and inviting as to determine at once the site of tlie 
furnace. 

This tract of land comprised a portion of the old 
" Parsonage lot," which was so wisely set apart by the 
original laws of the Connecticut settlers in Westmore- 
land, for the use of the first minister in fee^ and which 
w^as so shrewdly obtained subsequently of the State of 
Pennsylvania, and disposed of by Elder William Bishop, 
the first Baptist preacher in the Lackawanna Yalley. 
This tract of land, after passing through several hands, 
had fallen into the possession of William Merrifield, 
Zenus Albro, and William Picketson. Situated as it 
was upon this brook, where water comes bubbling down 
from the mountain side ; imbedded with vast deposits 
of iron and coal ; and being on the route of the Susque- 
hanna and Delaware Pailroad, the location apparently 
furnished every feature and element essential to success. 
The ledge of rock here projecting its silicious face 
over the brook, promised a good article of hearth- 
stones for the furnace, and stone for the erection of the 
stack. Nor w^as this all; the ISTorth Branch* excite- 
ment was reaching its meridian. Col. H. B. Wright, 
and Chester Butler, Esq., two of the foremost politi- 
cians of the day in Luzerne county, became interested 
in the project, and gave assurance of its being car- 
ried up the Lackaw^anna, as far as Poaring Brook, so 
that limestone, for the use of the works, could be abun- 
dantly and cheaply furnished. 

Of all these facts, Mr. Armstrong was apprised by 
Mr. Henry in January, 1840; visited by him in the 
following March, when every arrangement was made 

* As early as 1817, an act to incorporate a company for improving the 
navigation of the Lackawanna Creek was passed. 



108 LACKAWAKNA VALLEY. 

by them to form a copartnership in the pm*chase of 
this property, consisting of 503 acres, and in the erec- 
tion thereon of one or more blast furnaces. Henry 
returned to the valley ; and, after negotiating some 
three months for the land, finally purchased it for 
$8,000, or about $16 per acre — a price then considered 
enormous by people generally, for land possessing no 
otlier attractions than the useless minerals reposing 
within its bosom, and the huge stones and trees conceal- 
ing the scanty soil. As the purchase-money was to be 
furnished by Mr. Armstrong, he required the deed to 
be made in his own name. For the first payment, a 
draft of $2,500, in favor of the owners of the property, 
was given by Mr. Henry on Edward Armstrong, at 
thirty days ; but before it matured Mr. Armstrong was 
laid in his grave. A few days previous to his illness, 
which lasted but four days, he wrote to Mr. Henry 
"to be sure and secure the Slocum property." He 
died with the scarlet fever, a disease which, at the 
same time, carried off two of his children, and for a long 
time rendered helpless and heart-broken his wife. Thus 
death, at one stern blow, not only made the fireside 
desolate with grief, but seemed to claim for the sepul- 
chre the efforts of the living partner. 

Mr. Maitland, his administrator, at once wrote to 
Mr. Henry, at Stroudsburg, to abandon the purchase 
by all means. Depressed, but not daunted by this 
painful misfortune, he immediately wrote to Messrs. 
Merrifield, Albro, and Kicketson in Hyde Park, the 
news of the death of his late partner, and the non- 
acceptance of the draft; asking them to extend the 
time of payment thirty days, and in the meantime he 
would endeavor* to engage with other parties to step in 



THE HISTORY OF SCRANTON. 109 

and take the place of Mr. Armstrong. Mr. Merrifield 
returned a prompt reply, that the request would be 
acceded to on tlie part of the sellers, provided funds 
were paid, should the sale be eflected, which were par 
in ISTew York. 

The death of ]\Ii'. Armstrong — a gentleman eminently 
able, consistent and liberal — introduced persons into 
the valley, who, subsequent to this event, began to 
figure conspicuously in its rapid and healthy develop- 
ment. ISTot willing to lose a bargain deemed so great, 
Mr. Henry left Stroudsburg to see some friends in 
Morris county, Kew Jersey, who before had been anx- 
ious to join an enterprise of this character. Meeting his 
son-in-law, Seldeu T. Scranton, who then resided at 
Oxford Furnace, New Jersey, he communicated these 
facts to him ; urging him to come forward himself, or 
induce his friends to do so, and assume, at least as far as 
the purchase and payment were concerned, the place of 
Mr. Armstrong. At a public meeting held at Stan- 
hope in the memorable year of coon-skins. Col. George 
W. Scranton learned from his brother Selden the nature 
of the contemplated purchase. It was at once deter- 
mined by them to go to the Lackawanna Yalley with 
Mr. Henry, and if, upon a personal examination of the 
property, it should be found as promising and valuable 
as represented, they then would assist in carrying out the 
purchase-agreement previously made by Mr. Henry. 
Mr. Sanford Grant, then residing at Belvidere, was 
solicited to accompany the exploring party, and join 
in the proposed purchase. 

On the morning of the 17th of August, 1840, the 
Messrs. Scrantons and Grant left Belvidere, and being 
joined at Stroudsburg by Mr. Henry, proceeded to 



110 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

Slocuiii Hollow. It was then two days' journey from 
this point to the valley, over the old Drinker turnpike, 
Avhich lay over the swamps and jungles of the Pocona ; 
where nature seems to have concentrated all that is 
barren, o-loomv and sava^-e. Tiie passer who has es- 
caped with his life over the rude hospitalities of this 
turnpike, knows tliat the whole scenery from the Dela- 
ware to "Tlie Hollow" (now^ Scranton) consisted of 
nothing but mountains, hills, and woods, and, save the 
whir of some pheasant, or the wild babblings of the 
trout-brook, all was silence and desolation. 

Hardly a cabin or a sign of love and life appeared 
anywhere along this lonely road. The Urst night was 
spent in Covington, where a little round sign, creaking 
from a post standing almost in the road, announced that 
''man and beast" %ver6 entertained. The next noon, 
the party reached Slocuni Hollow, drove into the woods 
and tied their horses to a tree, near where now stands 
the residence of Mr. Archibald ; wound their way 
among the slim pines and undergrowth of laurel and 
saplings, down the steep east bank of the Eoaring 
Brook to the large vein of coal then prominently ex- 
posed to view, and since opened and worked. None 
of the party, except Mr. Henry, had ever seen a coal- 
vein before. Among the brush and leaves, the pick 
previously concealed by Henry was exhumed, by the 
aid of which large pieces of coal and iron-ore balls, 
lying in the vicinity, were dug up. After nuiking a 
careful examination of the fine water-power then mur- 
muring idly through the property, they drove over to 
Hyde Park, having been nearly a half day surveying 
the unpruned premises without seeing or being seen by 
a single person. 



THE HISTORY OF 6CRANT0N. HI 

A single saw-mill, with its clattering saw, and two 
small, wooden dwelling-houses, were all the evidence 
upon this property that it had passed from the Indian 
to the white man. Immediately below and adjoining, 
lay the debris of the old forge of Slocum's, near which 
now stood the grist-mill, two dwellings owned by Bar- 
ton Mott, and next below was the large red stone 
house and barn of Samuel Slocum, which yet remain 
like landmarks of other days ; and a little schoolhouse, 
yet in use, made complete the town of Slocum Hollow 
in 1840. 

Mr. Hitchcock lived in the house now occupied by 
Charles F. Mattes, which was then considered a good 
way out of town. 

Harsh as seemed the features of the valley, and par- 
ticularly of the chosen portion of it, it was concluded to 
purchase, and on the following day the parties with 
whom Mr. Henry had negotiated accepted the renewed 
proposition, and the titles were executed. The parties 
in their return home, via Wilkes Barre, discussed vari- 
ous plans for an organization, preparatory to commenc- 
ing operations. Mr. Henry submitted a plan and the 
estimate for a blast furnace, with sufficient houses to 
accommodate the necessary workmen. 

The Company now consisted of four persons, viz., 
S. T. and G. W. Scranton, S. Grant, and W. Henry. 
It was decided to unite Philip H. Mattes with the 
enterprise. He examined the purchase and became a 
partner, when the Company was immediately organized 
under the firm of Scrantons, Grant & Co. 

On the 11th of September, 1810, the first day's work 
for this Company was done here upon the furnace by 
Mr. Simon Ward, under the direction and superinten- 



112 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

dence of Ileniy, who had moved his family from 
Stroudsburg to the house now occupied by Henry 
Fellows, in Hyde Park. 

Hyde Park contained at this time one store, one 
tavern, and six or eight dwellings; Providence (then 
RazoTville)^ some ten or twelve, while Dunmore {alias 
The Corners, or Biichtown)^ simply four brown, nn- 
painted buildings. 

JSTew men naturally introduced new names into a 
region which was found so silent and drow^sy among 
the pines. At first, it was the simple, sweet-sounding 
Capouse, replete with Indian song and legend. Hardly 
had the Slocums destroyed the balance between the 
savage and the civilized life by the erection of their 
structures upon the bank of the brook before " Deep," 
or "Slocum Hollow," became a place famous for its 
good whishy. In fact, it retained this name from 1Y98 
until 1840, when "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" were 
sweeping like an avalanche towards the White House, 
and then Mr. Henry gave to the new work and the 
location the name of Harrison. This name, affording 
as it did evidence of the proverbial feebleness of the 
American people in name-j)ower and invention, lost 
caste after eight or ten years. Scrantonm was now 
substituted as being more beautiful and less meaning- 
less. But the boy with his father's clothes on could 
hardly sw^addle, so the doctor w^as called, and after a 
little amputating and medication, the name of Scranton 
was born — a name probably good enough, but how 
much more appropriate and musical would have been 
its primitive one, Capouse, or Lee-haw-hanna, or even 
Nay-aiig, the Indian name for the Poaring Brook ? 

Providence, too, has run through the curious and 



THE HISTORY OF SCRANTON. 113 

purifying nomenclature of names. After the jurisdic- 
tion of Connecticut had departed from the Yankee 
town and county of Westmoreland (now Luzerne 
county, etc.), Providence was called Jamestown ; when 
the ''Drinker turnpike" was completed and brought, 
or was expected to bring, this portion of country exactly 
in the centre of the world, it was called Centre-mile^ 
and when a Jerseyman could not exchange his jpewter 
sixjpence, which he had long carried, for some of the 
inspiring rye, he wet his whistle indignantly with cold 
water, turned his back to the offending towm, which he 
called " Eazorville " — a name so full of music that for 
many years it was retained among Jerseymen. It 
finally returned to its first-love — Providence. But we 
digress. 

While a few tenant-houses and the furnace were 
being erected, the new county measure and the canal 
project up the Lackawanna — two unfortunate twin-chil- 
dren — began to excite a deeper interest. Already had 
a law been passed, authorizing the feeder dam to be 
located at the falls on said river, but as nothing yet 
had been done towards its construction, hopes w^ere 
entertained by the sanguine of having the northern 
terminus of the canal at or near the embryo town of 
Harrison. For the purpose of raising funds to defray 
the expenses of some individual to go to Harrisburg 
and advocate the proposed measure, a subscription was 
raised in January, 1841. This new company, through 
Mr. Henry, paid $5, Samuel Slocum and Barton Mott, 
$5 each, John Sax and S. P. Templin, fifty cents each ; 
to make the $25 up Mr. Henry paid $4. 

For this thankless, outside mission, Charles H. Silk- 
man, Esq., a lawyer, whose ingenious persuasions it was 



114: LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

supposed none could gainsay or resist, was selected, and 
although he drew up several bills favorable to the val- 
ley, and strenuously urged their adoption, the Canal 
Board, the Legislature, and even the Governor himself, 
after looking upon the measure with apparent approba- 
tion, averted their kindness, and both fell into a volca- 
nic grave. 

During this winter considerable progress was made 
on the furnace, and a small store-house, office, and 
dwelling, all under one roof, were erected. This build- 
ing, after being enlarged, was subsequently known as 
Kresler's Hotel. It is now torn down to make room for 
the imposing works connected with the manufacturing 
of iron. In the spring of 1841, Mr. Grant, with his 
family, came here, and the store of the Company, then 
opened, was conducted under his management for seve- 
ral years. Mr. Charles F. Mattes, son of P. H. Mattes, 
and representing his father's interest in the concern, 
also came here about this time, and from the time the 
first furnace was put in blast has been actively engaged 
at the head of some of the departments ; at this time 
he is the manager of all the Company's blast fur- 
naces. 

Iron was first made with anthracite coal about the 
year 1836 in Wales ; in 1837 the idea of using anthracite 
for smelting iron ore began to be agitated in the United 
States, and few thought it would succeed, although bitu- 
minous coal had thus been employed about one hundred 
years before for this purpose in England. Experiments 
made in 1837 and 1838 proved such failures, that those 
who had witnessed their phenomena, saw nothing to hope 
for in the final result, but associations of loss and defeat- 
ed expectations. The first successful experiment was at 



THE HISTORY OF SCEANTON. 115 

the Crane Iron Works, on the Lehigh, and the next at 
Danville. 

The furnace being erected at Harrison was to be 
adapted to the use of anthracite. It was contemplated 
from the first to use the iron ore, commonly called hall 
ore^ lying adjacent to one of the veins of coal running 
through the whole coal region, but it was found to be too 
expensive to mine. Fortunately for the Company, in 
the spring of 1841, a large, rich body of iron ore was dis- 
covered on the southern slope of the Moosic Mountain, 
about three miles from the furnace, which was purchased ; 
but in order to get the ore to the brook at Harrison, 
nearly four thousand acres of the intervening land had 
to be purchased, thus subjecting the Company to an in- 
vestment not contemplated nor provided for in the origi- 
nal outline and estimate. This unavoidable yet unfore- 
seen outlay, together with the increased cost of the iron 
w^orks, which were now ready to go into operation, and 
the cost of a new and expensive railroad constructed to 
these iron deposits in the mountain, three and a half 
miles distant, and the mining houses, etc., exhausted the 
capital and left, upon the very outset, an oppressive debt. 

Col. George W. Scranton, in the fall of 1841, became 
a temporary resident of Harrison, and at once an ener- 
getic associate with Mr. Henry in the superintendence 
of the affairs and interests of the Company, just as the 
furnace was ready to be put in blast. The first attempt 
to start it was made by Mr. Templin, the head founder, 
but the stack was new and wet, so the experiment failed. 

The next attempt was made by Mr. Clark, of Stanhope, 
N. J., and this, too, failed to produce the desired result. 
Alterations in the machinery and in the hot-air ovens 
were made, and the services of Mr. John F. Davis, a 



116 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

practical workman and the present head founder, be- 
ing procured, the furnace was successfully blowed in De- 
cember, 1841. 

During the period of these disheartening attempts to 
start the furnace, which occupied some three months, it 
began to be generally feared and predicted in the neigh- 
borhood that the thing was a failure, if not actually a 
" Jersey humbug P but when the great obstacles had 
been rendered powerless, and the massive walls of the 
furnace yielded from the reddened crater great rolls 
and bars of iron, light broke in on the gathering cloud, 
and there was genuine rejoicing among the inhabitants 
of the valley, as well as among the Proprietors them- 
selves, who now looked forward with cheerfulness to the 
time when their united and untiring duties would be ap- 
preciated and rewarded. For several months, the oper- 
ations of the furnace were satisfactory, although the 
quantity of iron made was less than had been expected ; 
its quality for foundry purposes was fair, and for bar iron, 
superior. In the following spring, some alterations and 
improvements were made in the machinery. 

At this time the only market to any extent for the pro- 
duct of the furnace was on the sea-board. To this the 
Company had the choice or rather the necessity of only 
two routes, which were both hard, slow, and expensive, 
viz. the Delaware and Hudson Canal, and the other the 
North Branch and tide water Canal to Havre-de-Grace. 
In either case the iron was compelled to be drawn upon 
wagons. To the canal at Pittston it was seven miles, and 
to Carbondale, then the western terminus of the rail- 
road running to Honesdale, fifteen miles. The first 
year's product was shipped to New York and Boston, 
via Havre-de-Grace, at a time when great commercial 



THE HISTOEY OF SCRANTON. 117 

embarrassment was pervading the wliole country, and 
threatening to annihilate manufacturing interests all over 
the country. 

Iron had fallen in price since the commencement of 
the furnace, 40 per cent., and in fact the demand for it 
soon became so feeble that it could not be sold at any 
price. 

This was not without its influence, even upon a Com- 
pany so sanguine and tireless as this, and had they not 
been temporarily relieved from financial difiiculty, at 
this time, by a loan made to them by Mr. Joseph H. 
Scranton and E. C. Scranton, then of Augusta, Georgia, 
it is difficult to conceive at this period, the disasters which, 
after accumulating, might have swept away this strug- 
gling Company, and left the Lackawanna Yalley enjoy- 
ing its slumber and visions of idleness for at least half a 
century to come. 

The enterprise, so far, had been a losing one, and it 
soon became apparent that making and selling pig-iron 
alone, would always make it so. All of the Company 
were disheartened, as they were out of money — out of 
credit — out of everything, and their notes could hardly 
be sold at 40 per cent, discount. Even Col. Scranton 
himself, with his naturally confident temperament, be- 
gan to despair. S. T. Scranton was sent to JSTew York 
to negotiate for funds, and the effective influence of his 
peculiar address was illustrated in the result of his mis- 
sion. The very first man he called upon was John H. 
Howland, who at once advanced the Scranton Company 
$20,000, and whose son John subsequently became a 
partner in the concern, and furnished additional capital. 
It was now concluded to make iron into bars and nails, 
thus giving it increased value, with 25 per cent, less ton- 



118 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

nage to transport to market. To secure tlie largest ad- 
vantage from the location in the coal-basin, where coal 
was cheap, this pLan was adopted, and by the assist- 
ance of Mr. Howland began to mature. During this 
year (1843) the first rolling-mill and nail factory were 
commenced on the northern border of the brook where 
it first comes through the mountain rock into the valley. 
In February, 1844, the mill was completed, and the nail 
factory a few months afterwards ; both working to the 
fullest anticipations. Additional business rendered ne- 
cessary additional houses for employees, and this called 
for more capital than was at first apprehended to answer. 
In March, 1844, S. T. Scranton removed from Oxford 
Furnace, New Jersey, and settled at the " Lackawanna 
Iron Works," in Harrison, where he assumed the posi- 
tion occupied by his brother George, who in return took 
the place just vacated at Oxford Furnace, by Selden. 
For the next two years the business of the Company at 
Harrison was under the immediate supervision of Mr. 
Grant. 

The pLan of the village of Harrison being laid out in 
April 1841, by Captain James Stott of Carbondale, on a 
very small scale, however, it began to grow with jealous 
rapidity. Starting from nothing as it did, some of the 
surrounding villages of a dozen houses, feared it might at 
some distant day equal or perhaps rival theirs ! During 
this year an attempt was made by Dr. B. H. Throop, 
Chas. H. Silkman, Esq., and others, to get a post-office 
established here. There was at this time but two offices 
in the Township of Providence (now there are five), and 
letters reached this new Company only through the Hyde 
Park or Providence offices. x\s the application met 
with opposition from the two named places, and as tlie 



THE HISTORY OF SCRA.NTON". 119 

Department at Washington saw no necessity for locat- 
ing an office within half a mile of the old one, at a 
point, too, so obscure that the Hyde Park office a 
number of years before, while Slocum was Post- 
master, was removed from it, the measure was easily 
defeated. 

Railroads — those great blood-vessels now pulsating 
with long, living, snaky trains throughout almost every 
portion of the Union — ^had begun to awaken throughout 
the country unusual attention. This naturally intro- 
duced among iron-men the subject of making rail- 
road iron. The English iron-masters across the water, 
had predicted that this was a branch of the trade that 
their ambitious, simple Brother Jonathan would never 
blunder into ; consequently, the monopoly of making the 
heavy T rail could never pass from their hands. 
How thoroughly this illusion has been dispelled, let the 
thousands of miles of railroads laid with this superior 
kind of rail bear evidence. 

The T rail was first made in the United States in 
184:5. The same year the Scranton Company, after a 
little deliberation, decided to add this more profitable 
branch of the trade to their business. 

A happy circumstance, now threw upon the Company 
a glimpse of sunnier days. The New York and Erie 
railroad — that grand aoi'ta which now flows along 
southern New York, and over a mere corner of the 
'' Key-stone^'' State, and from which our own State steals 
$10,000 per year, for the simple privilege of crossing its 
before useless, inhospitable border — was at this time in 
operation no farther than Goshen, as the Company were 
besieged by embarrassment and surrendered the whole 
concern to new and stronger-headed men, soon after- 



120 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

wards, who at once took hold of this magnificent under- 
taking, determined to push it to Lake Erie, as was origi- 
nally intended. English iron, which this road so far as 
completed was laid with, cost the Railroad Company 
$80 per ton. It was believed by the Scranton Com- 
pany that good T rails could be furnished the Erie Rail- 
road Company, especially upon the Delaware and Sus- 
quehanna divisions, on terms more advantageous to the 
interests of the road than it before had enjoyed. 

Joseph H. Scranton purchased the entire interest in the 
concern of Mr.Grant, in 1845, who retired from a position 
subsequently filled by Mr. J. C. Piatt. Mr. Piatt became 
a partner the next year, and although the firm has been 
changed several times, and gradually enlarged their 
borders by the purchase of real estate, and by continual 
enlargement and improvement around them, he has ever 
held the same satisfactory relation to the place. 

The year of 1846 was one of the most important ones 
in the history of Harrison. Col. Geo. W. Scranton. 
having returned to the works to reside permanently, at 
this time, negotiated, by the assistance of his brothers 
J. H. and S. T. Scranton, a contract with the Erie Rail- 
road Company, for 12,000 tons of iron-rail, to weigh 
581bs. to the yard; to be made and delivered at the 
mouth of the Lackawaxen, in Pike county, during the 
years of 1847-8, at $70 per ton. To estimate rightly 
which of the contracting parties gained the most 
by this arrangement, is now impossible. Mr. Loder, 
President of the Erie Company at this time, stated 
in a public speech at the opening of the northern 
division of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western 
Railroad, that had it not been for this contract and 
its prompt fulfillment, the road could not have been 



THE HISTORY OF SCRANTON. 121 

opened at the time specified to Binghamton, as the 
Erie Raih-oad Company must have failed or suspended. 
To the Scranton Company it was everything. Those 
even who knew, that in spite of all the close economy 
and foresight with which the affairs of this Company 
were conducted, how fearfully it was involved, can 
hardly appreciate the invigorating influence this large 
sale of iron infused into the Proprietors. 

To fulfill this heavy agreement required mills and 
machinery of a corresponding character. ISTot only had 
these to be erected, but the essential wherewith to be 
obtained. 

Several wealthy gentlemen, warm friends of the Erie 
Road, promptly came forward, and on the simple obliga- 
tions of the Scrantons alone, with no security, loaned 
them $100,000 to construct the necessarj^ iron-works so 
that the contract should be fulfilled. Extraordinary 
activity was now displayed in Harrison in every de2:>art- 
ment of business, the active management of which 
passed into the hands of Joseph H. Scranton, who came 
here to reside in 1847. Up to this time, the means of 
transportation to market of the now largely increased 
annual product of iron, remained as difficult as at the 
commencement, with the exception of the extension of 
the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's Railroad? 
from Carbondale to Archibald, which reduced the 
hauling by teams to nine miles ; the iron ore was carted 
three miles and a half from the mines ; the limestone 
and pig-iron * purchased at Danville, drawn from the 
canal at Pittston, seven miles, and the Railroad iron 

* As the production of the blast furnace was not equal to the wants 
and capacity of the mill, pig iron in large quantities was purchased and 
brought up the canal from Columbia county. 

6 



122 ' LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

(wliicli had become the principal product of the works, 
as the manufacturing of nails had ceased), was drawn to 
Archibald upon heavy wagons, a distance of nine miles 
from Harrison, requiring the use of over four hundred 
horses and mules. In fact, during the summer months, 
so slow and difficult was the transportation of the iron 
by their own force, that all the horses belonging to the 
farmers in the Township of Providence, which could be, 
were engaged by this Company, to assist in delivering 
it to the indicated point by the indicated time. 

Two large blast furnaces were now in the course of 
construction, as well as a railroad to their ore mines on 
the mountain. To make this grade so that the cars 
could be drawn up to the ore places by mules, and 
when loaded, return to the furnace by the power of 
gravity, five and a half miles of road were rendered 
necessary. This, however, dispensed with nearly all 
the team power heretofore essential in delivering the 
raw material. 

The Company had, previous to this, organized under 
the General Partnership law. George W. Scranton, 
Selden T. Scranton, Joseph H. Scranton, and J. C. 
Piatt comprising the general partners, and several 
well-known, wealthy gentlemen of New York being 
special ones. With this change, the capital of the 
Company was correspondingly increased. 

On the south side of the Roaring Brook some three 
hundred houses for the workmen had been built by the 
Company, while the only building up to this time, aside 
from those of the Company, put up upon the other, 
was one made by Dr. Tlu'oop for his brother, and now 
occupied by Mr. Albright. Tlie doctor, at this time, 
resided in Providence, but as there was no physician at 



THE HISTORY OF SCRANTON. 123 

Harrison (now tliere are just tioenty at this point, of every 
size, color, and calibre), he removed here, and among the 
shady pines which gave a fresh and tranquil air to the 
old road leading from the " Hollow " to " Razorville," 
he built his cottage-home. Here, retired in a spot too 
lonely to tempt hither the indolent, with no house in 
sight but his own, he lived many years, where, after 
the exhausting and often thankless duties of his daily 
professional drives, he enjoyed the cheerful fireside and 
smoked his pipe in peace, unless disturbed by the clear, 
deep-throated ho-loonk-blonh of the frogs, holding nightly 
their carnival in the neighboring pond. This cottage is 
yet in good condition, and is now occupied by Mr. 
Phinney, secretary of the Iron Company, surrounded by 
large blocks of brick stores, and hotels, and immediately 
under the towering spire of the Presbyterian church. 

Up to this recent period, from the time railroad iron 
was first made here, the Company labored under every 
variety of disheartening influences and elements, the 
secrets of which were only known and felt by them- 
selves. To carry out the great programme which they 
had undertaken to do, with the limited capital at com- 
mand, required exertions almost superhuman. Extra 
w^ork, additional machinery, and various and expensive 
materials, all called for restless labor and more money. 
Large iron contrivances, which were essential to the 
works, had to be carted by the stubborn mule, or the 
jaded horse, about sixty or seventy miles, over roads 
loading over mountains covered with a growth of hem- 
lock and spruce as black as night. 

Eight mule teams were used for this service — a ser- 
vice so full of the w^earisome and so apt to derange the 
patience of the drivers, that it often was iin]>o?sible to 



124: LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

get willing and competent ones anywhere. When it 
was thought such were obtained, the Company found it 
necessary to contract w^ith the keepers of the small, 
loitering taverns along the road, to furnish suppers for 
their drivers, and feed for their teams, and forward 
their bills each month to the office for payment. It 
was especially provided that no liquor should be fur- 
nished them or paid for upon aiiy terms ; but some of 
the men, in common parlance, would " whip the devil 
round the stump," and bring in bills with "sixteen 
glasses of leming ayde^'' — a very poetic drink — " at six- 
pence a glass, and one pint of whisky," — probably for a 
cooling lotion for the mules' backs. These bills came 
from places where a lemon had never been seen or 
heard of before. 

The business of the Company, so broad, so vast, so 
comprehensive in its character, and so beneficial in its 
influence, afforded throughout the country, and the 
Lackawanna Yalley, where its benefits were more 
especially felt, a theme of great congratulation. To 
see a town emerge from the barren surface with a 
growth marvellous as tropical life, into a maze of found- 
ries, furnaces, manufacturing works, and dwellings, 
was an occurrence so rare as to cause no little astonish- 
ment and pride among those accustomed to the slow 
accretions to the valley before. The rise of real estate 
along the Lackawanna Yalley since the inception of 
this Company, was at least 100 per cent., while the 
relations of the Scrantons with the public were harmo- 
nious and characterized by general good feeling. 

We say general. There were then, as there are yet, 
and as there always probably will be, a debilitated, but 
croaking class of persons who by some hidden process 



THE HISTORY OF SCRANTON. 125 

manage to keep up a little animation in their useless 
bodies, who, gathered in bar-room corners, and who, 
with a peculiar wisdom belonging to this class w'hile 
discussing weighty matters, gravely predicted that 
" the Scrantons must fail !" A line of four-horse stages 
ran through the valley on the western side of the Lack- 
awanna from Wilkes Barre to Carbondale, and, con- 
necting at each place w^ith a similar line, via Milford 
and Morristown to New York, and via Easton to Phila- 
delphia, furnished the only mode of conveyance to or 
from the Lackawanna Valley. 

The mills were completed, and as they began to con- 
vert the hills into railroad iron the last lingerer among 
the dark clouds moved off from the Lackawanna Iron 
Company. The first fifteen hundred tons of railroad 
iron that was made on the 12,000 contract were deliv- 
ered at the mouth of the Lackaw^axen. Here it was 
taken by canal to Port Jervis and laid on the road 
between Port Jervis and Otisville. After that portion 
of the Erie Railroad was opened for use, the Company 
having been so delayed by injunctions and the want of 
ih.Q piratical legislation to cross the river into Pennsylva- 
nia at the Glass-house rocks, that they found they were 
certain to be defeated in opening their road to Binghamp- 
ton by the time they had specified, unless they could 
get the Scranton company to deliver the balance of the 
iron on the line of the railroad, at different points along 
the Delaware Piver. The terms of delivery having been 
arranged, the Scranton Company carted by teams about 
seven thousand tons of iron and delivered it at Big 
Eddy (Narrow^sburg), Cochecton, Equinunk, Stockport, 
Summit, and Lanesborough, an average distance of 
about fifty miles, thus enabling the Company to lay the 



126 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

track at all points along the Delaware division as fast 
as the grading was ready, and open the road for one 
hundred and thirty miles at once — four days ahead of 
the time appointed. The difficulty of carting so large 
an amount of iron in so short a time can be inferred by 
those familiar with the mountainous roads and the wil- 
derness intervening. 

Another effort now being made to get a post-office es- 
tablished at Harrison, was, by the assistance of the late 
Chester Butler, then a Member of Congress, successful ; 
at the time he gave the name of Scrantonia to the vil- 
lage of Harrison. This was in 1848. The same office, 
now hardly nine years of age, is the only salaried one 
in northern Pennsylvania. The same year, Scrantonia 
was divested of its superfluous appendage, when " Ca- 
pouse," " Slocum Hollow," " Harrison," "Lackawanna 
Iron Works," Scranto-nia were all laid aside for the 
name of Scranton. 

The rapid expansion and concentration of business at 
this point, as well as the absence of all necessary com- 
munication with the sea-board and the lakes, rendered 
more apparent and desirable an outlet east or west. The 
subject of connecting the valley by railroad with the 
New York and Erie Road in a northerly direction was 
frequently discussed by the general partners ; in fjict, it 
was with the most sanguine expectations of a line of 
public improvement being extended both north and 
south at no distant day, that went far towards deciding 
the original proprietors in locating here. 

With a view of bringing the subject of railroad pro- 
jects and connections generally with the valley before 
the minds of capitalists, in a manner both advantageous 
and effective, Col. George W. Scranton was detailed 



THE HISTORY OF SCEANTON. 127 

from the active management of tlie affairs of the Iron 
Company in the summer of 1848. 

Valuable coal lands had been secured as a reliable ba- 
sis of such an enterprise ; large delegations of New York 
and 'New England gentlemen were persuaded from time 
to time to visit the valley and examine the vast mineral 
resources everywhere apparent along its border, and 
witness the dark croppings of coal, the fertile farms 
and luxurious intervale, the abundant water-power for 
mills, or manufacturing purposes, the splendid sights 
and the fine timber ; all of which, the moment a rail- 
road outlet appeared, would be trebled in value. By 
many, the valley was considered too wild and remote, 
or too difficult of access, even for an exploring tour. 
Such never left the parental roof, and it was left for 
bolder ones and stouter arms to sow and reap the har- 
vest. An extra stage-coach, with its five miles an hour 
speed, now and then brought into the valley delega- 
tion after delegation from the East, which w^ere hailed 
with friendly solicitude by the inhabitants. Often and 
always was the inquiry heard of that firm friend of the 
public interest, Sam Tripp, when the " Yorkers " were 
coming? All eyes for a time were directed towards 
the local movements of the Yorkers, and the hope of 
every honest citizen then, as well as now, was that long 
life and prosperity would accompany all who came. 
• The subject of connecting the Susquehanna River at 
Pittston with the Delaware Water Gap, suggested itself 
to the mind of Henry W. Drinker as early as 1819, long 
before his vigorous mind comprehended how much more 
formidable a railroad project would prove than the 
turnpikes hh energy was about directing through the 
trackless forests. In 1826 he obtained a charter for 



128 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

this road ; six years later, the first instrumental survey 
of the contemplated route was made by Captain Beach, 
who was employed and principally paid by John Jor- 
don, Jr., H. W. Drinker, and William Henry, the last 
two of whom became intimately associated in the enter- 
prise. They spent years of exhausting toil, and largely 
of their means, to throw living functions into this high- 
way ; but, wisely as seemed the plan to have been con- 
ceived, it failed entirely in its gestation. Time, how- 
ever — the great administrator of events — has shown 
that not only was their judgment correct, but greatly 
in advance of the age in regard to this new breath- 
less road. 

This line was run with a view of inclined planes, 
operated by water-power, and perhaps a canal a portion 
of the way. The "headwaters of the river Lehigh 
and its tributary streams " were prohibited from being 
used for feeding the canal, as it might " injure the navi- 
gation of said river Lehigh.'' 

Another charter, known as the " Ligett's Gap," had 
been obtained simultaneously with this survey of the 
"Drinker road." It authorized the construction of an 
inclined plane railroad, from some point near Cobb's 
Gap to the State of New York, in a northwesterly 
direction. Both of these charters, kept alive by supple- 
mentary acts, were found to be too defective for prac- 
tical purposes. Upon one, the use of horse power, 
between the planes, to draw the cars, was contemplated 
by the original projectors of the road, while the other 
provided that toll-houses were to be established along 
the line, and collectors appointed, and that the drivers 
or conductors of "such carriage, wagon, or conveyance, 
boat, or raft," were to give the collectors notice of their 



THE HISTORY OF SCRANTON. 129 

approach to said toll-liouses by blowing a " trumpet or 
horn ;" these and many other singuhir features were 
afterwards replaced by those more in harmony with the 
times. 

The Ligett's Gap (afterwards Lackawanna and West- 
ern Railroad) was consolidated with the Delaware and 
Cobb's Gap charter, under the name of Delaware, 
Lackawanna and Western. The old Drinker charter 
was never used. The Company generously paid to all 
the different parties who had assisted in obtaining the 
several charters, and making the original surveys, over 
seven thousand dollars, although not legally bound to 
pay a farthing. 

Up until 1847 no car had rolled, nor had a single 
rail been laid, along the Lackawanna, with the single 
exception of those upon the railroad running from 
Carbondale to Honesdale. This road, too, was a grav- 
ity one, w^orked by stationary steam engines and horse 
power, over the Moosic Mountain, and was one of the 
first railroads built in the State of Pennsylvania. 

The honor of the inception as well as the completion 
of a locomotive engine road^ from Great Bend to the 
Delaware Water Gap, belongs justly to Colonel George 
W. ScRANTON. Mountainous and forbidding as were 
the natural features of the country through which it 
was to pass, and formidable as appeared the idea to 
many of his associates around him, he nevertheless 
advocated and clung to the object of his sanguine hope 
as clings a parent to his child. At his own suggestion, 
and under his immediate direction, the preliminary 
surveys were made upon the route by Major Murrel, 
assisted by the late James Seymour, and E. McNeill, 
since chief engineer of the whole line. The route was 

6* 



130 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

found quite as feasible as Colonel Scranton had sup- 
posed, from his own personal observations, and, as the 
charter of the " Ligett's Gap Eailroad " was found suit- 
able for all practical purposes, after a little alteration, 
it was purchased. 

To inspire general confidence in an undertaking 
which, when completed, would not only make Scranton 
matchless in life and growth, but revolutionize a valley 
so long buried in its slumber, a bold move was made. 
The books of subscription were opened at Kresler's 
Hotel in Scranton, in 1847, by the Commissioners, and 
the whole stock subscribed, and 10 per cent, paid in. 
While these flattering movements were not without 
some good effect, it was the work of more than two 
years' ceaseless labor, amidst every possible discourage- 
ment, before any real capital could be calculated upon. 
As this road was to lead to the Erie Railroad instead 
of the Erie Canal, it was thought by many moneyed men 
that the coal market, for a while, would be so limited, 
that no investment would pay. This road was com- 
menced in 1850. To overcome this objection, as far as 
possible, and reach and make a more northern market 
(for the first loads of coal taken hither were given away, 
in order to introduce the black stuff into general use), 
the Ithaca and Oswego Railroad, one of the oldest 
roads in the country, was purchased by the Iron Company 
and their associates, in 1849. This old road, like all 
railroads in the United States, was laid with the flat or 
strap rail — a rail possessing neither strength nor safety, 
as one end of it sometimes becoming bent, would dart 
with the rapidity of lightning with its ^^ snake liead^'' 
into the passing train, marking its red progress with 
appalling slaughter upon the living and the loved. 



THE HISTORY OF SCRANTON. 131 

A new company being now organized, called the 
Cayuga and Susquehanna Railroad Company, for the 
purpose of building this road, Col. G. W. Scranton was 
chosen President, who at once repaired to Ithaca to 
engage in his active duties, which were discharged with 
the happiest ability and success. 

To carry out the original plan contemplated by the 
colonel, of connecting the Iron Works with New York 
City, a survey was made in 1851-2 for the eastward 
outlet, and in 1853 the present line adopted. While 
this new, absorbing project was taking shape and being, 
the business of the Scranton Company was still enlarging. 
The Iron Company organized this year under a special 
charter with a capital of $800,000, and Selden T. Scran- 
ton elected President, and Joseph H. Scranton, Super- 
intendent — positions they yet retain. 

After the Lackawanna and Western Railroad was 
consolidated with the Delaware and Cobb's Gab char- 
ter, under the name of "Delaware, Lackawanna, and 
Western Railroad Company," work was commenced 
vigorously on the southern division of this road. On the 
21st of January, 1856, the first locomotive and train of 
cars passed over the Delaware. 

Rapid as has been the symjpatJietic growth of Carbon- 
dale, Archibald, Jessup, Dunmore, Providence, and 
Hyde Park, theirs has been a snail's pace compared 
to the stronger development of Scranton. In July, 
1810, only seventeen years ago, five brown dwelling- 
houses made up the complete town at ^^ The Holler^'* 
where now the village of Scranton, founded on the 
sure basis of manufacturing industry, stands in the 
doorway to the east, with a population of ten thousand! 

The tourist who visits Scranton to-day, may not find 



132 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

as much wildness and sublimity around it, as when 
from the Pocona range, his eye first catches a ghmpse 
of the truly bold outlines of the Delaware Water Gap, 
he will, nevertheless, as he walks along the walls of 
Roaring Brook, and gazes on the massive piles of 
furnace-stacks pouring out, day after day, ponds of rude 
or finished iron, from the ponderous bar to the delicate 
bolt, and witness the quiet, yet resistless motion of the 
largest stationary engine on the American Continent, 
will feel proud and pleased with the sights of industry 
and thrift everywhere around him. 

One of the most home-like hotels found in the State, 
is the Wyoming House, in Scrauton, kept by Judge 
Bristol. To get and appreciate a bird's-eye view of the 
town, let the tourist ascend to the balcony of the 
Judge's house, where the charming panorama that un- 
rolls itself before him, will compensate in the highest 
degree for the trouble of the visit. He will then look 
down into a region interesting for its scenery, its strata 
of coal, its beds of iron ore, and its Indian history. The 
first impression is one favorable towards this portion 
of the valley, as there appears upon every side evidence 
of neatness and life. 

Yonder, the noisy water of the red-man (Roaring 
Brook) takes a white leap from one of the loveliest and 
loneliest nooks carved from the mountain, before it 
splashes on the busy wheel of the manufacturers, and 
and after being nsed three or four times in its passage 
through the village, mingles with the waters of the 
Lackawanna below. The huge, round slate-roofed loco- 
motive depot filled with engines, as it first strikes the 
eye, reminds him of the Roman Colliseum, while the 
landscape sprinkled with brown colored depots, car- 



THE HISTOKY OF SCBANTON. 133 

shops, and Yulcan's works upon every side ; the chaste, 
imposing churches, the long, white lines of public and 
private architecture contrasting finely with the deep 
green of the surrounding trees, tastily left for shade ; the 
train of coal-cars, serpentine and dark, emerging from 
the " Diamond Mines," or skimming along the iron veins 
down a grade of seventy feet to the mile from the pro- 
ductive coal-works at the "Notch," some two miles 
distant, on their passage to New York ; the locomotive, 
with its nightingale song and vapory breath, rushing 
along the western side of tlie Lackawanna, from the 
"Wyoming Valley over the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg 
Eailroad which terminates at Scranton ; the villages of 
Hyde Park, Providence, Dimmore and half a dozen 
little rosy buds of villages, standing like sentinels at the 
out-posts about to be surrendered ; the Lee-haw-hanna, 
with its modest throat and richer shade, drawn like a 
belt of silver along the picture ; the neat farm-houses 
here and there nestling in some lovely meadow or half 
hid among the blossoms of orchards, and the back- 
ground of the unshorn mountain swelling upwards from 
Wyoming or the Lackawanna region, all make up a 
sight as beautiful as the Jewish ruler of old once wit- 
nessed from the sacred Mount. Nor is this all , as he 
looks into the bosom of " Capouse Meadow," his eye 
wanders over coal lands which, fifteen years before the 
completion of a railroad outlet north from the valley 
could be purchased for fifteen dollars per acre, and 
which now are worth $800 ; and lots which then no 
respectable man was willing to accept as a gratuity, 
now readily bring from one to two thousand dollars ! 

This sketch of the history of Scranton can hardly 
appropriately be closed without a glance at the great 



134 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

iron works now in blast here, capable of smelting about 
seventy tliousand tons of ore a year. The sizes of these 
blast furnaces may be inferred from the diameter of the 
hashes, which are respectively 15, 17, 18, and 20 feet, 
with a height of 50 feet. Into these furnaces air is 
forced by double, connected, lever-beam engines, of vast 
power. The steam cylinders are 54 inches in diameter. 

The blowing cylinders are 110 inches in diameter, 
with 10 feet stroke. The wind is forced by this appa- 
ratus into the furnaces, under an average pressure of 
four pounds to the square inch. The huge fly-wheel 
which regulates the movements of this enormous appa- 
ratus weighs forty thousand pounds. In order to be 
prepared for any possible exigency, and have increased 
blowing power, the Iron Company are now building 
appropriate apartments upon the very ground where 
formerly stood, under one roof, the first ofiice, store, 
and dwelling, of Messrs. Scranton and Grant, in Harri- 
son, subsequently known as " Kresler's Hotel." 

The pair of engines will have cylinders 59 inches in 
diameter, and the blowing cylinders will be 90 inches. 
Each engine is to have two fly-wheels, 28 feet in diam- 
eter, and to weigh seventy-five thousand pounds. By 
this power they will be able to force the air into the 
furnaces under a pressure of eight or nine pounds to 
the square inch, a great advantage, as it is found by 
experiments that, in order for a furnace to yield the 
greatest product, it must not only have a certain 
amount of air, but that the air, to be most advanta- 
geous, must be introduced under heavy pressure, and 
at many places simultaneously, when it is more equally 
difl\ised through the stack. Some thirty thousand tons 
of pig metal can now be produced each year. 



THE HISTORY OF SCR ANTON. 135 

A walk of five minutes brings one to the rolling- 
mills, which also stand on the north side of the Roaring 
Brook. Midway between the furnaces and the mills, 
down the bank of the brook, to the right, is seen a rail- 
road track leading into a mine directly under our feet, 
into which a few blackened coal-cars, drawn by mules, 
disappear in midnight. This vein of coal, at this point, 
w^hich is used in all the iron works now, is the very one 
first seen by the exploring party, in 1840, led by Mr. 
Henry, and which, in connection with the adjacent iron 
deposits, decided the Scrantons and Mr. Grant to pur- 
chase this property for sixteen dollars an acre. Enter- 
ing the rolling-mill, one is surprised to see the mag- 
nitude and the precision of the whole arrangement. 
The principal product of the mills is in T railroad bars, 
of which from fifteen to twenty thousand tons a year 
are finished. A great quantity of railroad spikes and 
chairs are made, beside some three thousand tons of 
merchant iron. 

Some general idea can be inferred of the imposing 
character of the iron works by the fact that one hun- 
dred thousand tons of anthracite coal per year are con- 
sumed by them alone, while they furnish employment 
to an effective army of one thousand men ! 

The amount of capital already expended by the Dela- 
ware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company in 
their railroad and coal property, including the Cayuga 
and Susquehanna Railroad, and the Warren Railroad, 
in New Jersey, is, at this time, over twelve million dol- 
lai-s, and a large amount will yet be required to com- 
plete the double track and properly equi]3 the road. 

The influence of the opening of this great eastern and 
western outlet upon a valley so long imprisoned by 



136 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

mountain bamers, facts of yesterday and to-day, bear 
too recent evidence to need repeating. It is visible in 
every liamlet, it is felt in every cottage by the way- 
side, and it is written in genial lines everywhere along 
the Lackawanna, as well as in the historic valley of 
Wyoming. 



MAIL OPERATIONS IN THE VALLEY AND ADJACENT COUN- 
TRY FORTY-FIVE YEARS AGO. 

As late as 1812, while much of the country was 
unsubdued, except here and there where the stumpy 
clearing of the settler broke in upon the wilderness, the 
United States Mail was carried once a week, from 
Wilkes Barre up the Lackawanna Yalley to Capouse, 
or Slocum Hollow, thence through the Paupack settle- 
ment to Milford ; returning by way of Indian Orchard, 
Bethany, and Montrose, and down along the Susque- 
hanna villages to Wilkes Barre. 

Having no other outlet, all mail packages for the 
Lackawanna had to pass through Wilkes Barre, as they 
came over the mountain, via Easton. 

The inhabitants being few and sparse, the post-office 
was sometimes located at points where there stood but 
a single cabin, but where the operations of the office 
were none the less harmonious and comprehensive. 

There yet lives in the valley an old gentleman, per- 
forming then the duties of mail-boy, and who not only 
encountered dangers in fording streams, often swift and 
swollen by the rains, traversing new roads and marked 
paths, but who found much to amuse his boyhood while 
the mail was being changed at places along his route. 



MAIL OPERATIONS. 137 

At one point, the ^' office " was kept in a low, log, 
savage-looking bar-room, where the contents of the 
mail-pouch were emptied on a floor, suggestive of a 
freshly dug potato-patch, where all the inmates of the 
house gave slow and ponderous motion to each resp'ec- 
tive paper and letter. 

Sometimes the mail-boy, finding no one at home but 
the children, who were generally engaged drumming 
on the dinner-pot, or the housewife, unctuous with lard 
and dough, lol-li-bye-babying a boisterous child to sleep, 
was compelled to act as carrier and post-master himself. 

At another point upon the route, the commission of 
post-master fell upon the thick shoulders of a Dutch- 
man, remarkable for nothing but his full, round stom- 
ach. This was his pride, and he would pat it inces- 
santly while he dilated upon the virtues of his " krout " 
and his " frow." 

It would have been amazingly stupid for the Depart- 
ment to have questioned his order or integrity, for as 
the lean mail-bag came tumbling into his door from the 
saddle, the old comical Dutchman and his devoted wife 
carried it to a rear bed-room in his house, poured the 
contents upon the floor, where at one time it actually 
took them both from three o'clock one afternoon until 
nine the next morning to change the mail ! Believing 
with Lord Bacon, that "knowledge is power," he 
detained about election time, all political documents, 
directed to his opponents. These he carefully deposited 
in a safe place in his garret until after election day, 
when they were handed over with great liberality to 
those to whom they belonged, provided he was paid the 
postage. 

At another of the obscure cabins where the office was 



138 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

ke23t, beyond all but the noon-day sun, the mail-bag 
being returned to the post-boy often quite empty, led 
him to investigate the cause of this new and strange fea- 
ture, especially as nobody else lived in the neighbor- 
hood. The prolific number of ten children, graduating 
from one to twenty years in age, all called the Post- 
master " dad," and as none of them could understand 
or read a word, letters and papers came to a dead stop 
when they arrived here. As these were poured out on 
the floor among pans and kettles, each child would 
seize a package, saying, " this is for me and this for 
you, and that for some one else, until the greater 
portion of mail matter intended for offices more remote, 
was thus parcelled out and appropriated, and probably 
never heard of again. 



THE WYOMING MASSACRE IN 1778. 

Although the inhabitants of the State of Connecticut 
met at Hartford, as early as September 1774, for the 
purpose of adopting measures of resistance to British 
tyranny, her young colony at Westmoreland (Wyoming), 
consisting of about 2,300 persons within all its bounda- 
ries, were so much absorbed in the long strife with 
Pennsylvania claimants to the very land they themselves 
occupied, that nothing was done in the way of building 
forts or preparing for the sterner and bloodier conflict 
of the Revolution, until after it had actually commenced. 
Forty Fort and one at Wilkes Barre were erected a 
short time previous to this. 

The spirit of the Revolution, however, was not without 
impulse even here on the old grounds of the Five Nations. 



THE WYOMING MASSACRE IN 1778. 139 

As tlie war broke out, measures were taken to place 
the valley in a defensive condition. At a town meeting 
'' legally warned, and held in Westmoreland, Wilkes 
Barre district, August 21:th, 1776," it was voted that 
forts be built in Hanover, Plymouth, "Wilkes Barre and 
Pittston, at once, at points deemed most judicious by 
the military committee. In the simple language of the 
times, it was voted that the people erect such forts 
" without either fee or reward from ye town." 

Before the battle on Abraham's Plain, July 3d, 
1778, there stood in the valley of Wyoming, eight 
Forts — one of which was the Tory Fort of Winter- 
moots. Among the families, which at the time of the 
breaking out of the Kevolutionary War, left the eastern 
shores of the Hudson, and sought the fertile border of 
the Susquehanna, for no good purpose, was a large, 
rich, Tory family named Wintermoot, who, on the high, 
rio-ht bank of the river, at the extreme head of the 
valley, where a noble spring of fairest water boiled up 
from the earth, cleared a small piece of land. Here he 
erected a rude fort known as Wintermoot's, and, 
although this simple fact afforded no actual evidence of 
Toryism, its erection at this point and at this exciting 
period, justly aroused the suspicions of the neighbor- 
ing settlers, who forthwith erected another one about 
one mile above this point, where lived the truly patriotic 
families of the Hardings and Jenkins. This was called 
Fort Jenkins. It stood nearly opposite the celebrated 
ledge of Campbell, a little distance above the mouth of 
the Lackawa^nna.. 

The war, which the stubborn and stronger power of 
England forced upon America, already had began 
with fearful strokes at Lexington, Ticonderoga, Bunker 



14:0 LACEJlWANNA VALLEr. 

Hill, and Montreal, and, wliile the Connecticut Colony 
at Wyoming were exerting every means to promote the 
cause of American freedom, by protecting its own 
frontier fire-sides from the rapine of Tories and Indians, 
who grew more bold and haughty in their intercourse 
with the settlers, Connecticut was called upon by Con- 
gress in August, 1776, to raise two companies of eighty- 
four men each, to be stationed at proper places in West- 
moreland, for the defence of its inhabitants. Connecticut 
— a state which furnished to the Continental army during 
the Revolutionary War, the greatest number of soldiers 
raised by any one State, with the single exception of 
Massachusetts — raised the one hundred and sixty-eight 
men in Wyoming, for its defence. No sooner, however, 
was the number complete, than Congress conceived that 
the wants of the country elsewhere, were more impera- 
tive and critical, if possible, than they were here. The 
American army of about 14,000 men, under General 
Washington, had been driven from Long Island and 
New York by the British army, numbering 25,000. 
Forts Washington and Lee, on the Hudson River, were 
taken by the superior forces of the enemy, November 
16th, 1776. With only 3,000 men, General Washington 
retreated to Newark, and was driven from camp to camp 
with his desponding soldiers ; crossing the Delaware as 
the victorious British approached Philadelphia. At 
this imminent moment. Congress, which adjourned the 
same day from Philadelphia to Baltimore, ordered these 
two Wyoming companies to join the Commander-in- 
chief " icith all possible expedition.'^'' This was done 
and at once Wyoming was left without soldiers. Dis- 
heartening events in many portions of the country began 
to transpire and dismay. With 10,000 troops, Gen. Bur- 



THE WYOMING MASSACRE IN 1778. 141 

goyne was sweeping down from the Canadian frontiers, 
accompanied by his Indian allies, which it took little to 
excite to war upon their white brothers, and to what is 
ever so dear to the wild-man's breast — revenge. Ticon- 
deroga had already fallen into his hands, while General 
Howe was crowding up victory after victory in 'New 
York and E'ew Jersey, and the Indians living along the 
upper branches of the Susquehanna and Chenango, 
became restless and joyous at the prospect of once more 
visiting and possessing their old hunting plains at Wyo- 
mink. Parties of them were often seen here and there, 
to emerge from the mountain forest into the valley, and 
although at first they shed no blood nor destroyed any 
property, a captive now and then was hurried off 
towards the Indian country. Persons in the settlement 
saw the gathering danger. Scouting parties — bold and 
experienced woodsmen — were sent out daily from the 
valley to watch the war-paths leading over the moun- 
tains, while trainings were held every fourteen days in 
all the settled towns, where the old and the young 
drilled side by side, in their country's service ; expect- 
ing every report of the musket, or the bark of the 
watch -dog, to announce the approach of Indians. 

The Colony was now (1 778) but nine years old, and 
out of its total population of about 2,000 persons, 168 
formed part of the main army under Gen. Washington, 
when the meditated attack on Wyoming was made known 
to the inhabitants. A large body of Indians and Tories 
were already assembled at Niagara and at Tioga, for 
this purpose ; the Indians being under the command of 
the famous Chief of mixed blood, named Brant, or 
Gi-en-gwah-toh.* This attack was possibly suggested 

* *' He who ffoes in the smoke." — Col. Stone. 



142 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

by the known absence of so many soldiers from the 
valle}^, as well as by desire of the Tories who had been 
expelled from the Wyoming colony, to seek revenge on 
the exposed settlement. 

From the Lackawaxen, the Lackawanna, and from 
the mountains along the Delaware, and Susquehanna, 
the Indians were summoned to Oliiiaquaga^ to join the 
enterprise, while all the Tories living at Tunkhannock 
and Wyalusing, simultaneously repaired to the enemy. 

Early in the spring of 1TY8, Congress had been ap- 
prised by Gen. Schuyler of the threatened attack, but 
so engaged was this body in this all-absorbing struggle, 
that nothing was or could be done for the safety of 
"Wyoming until March 16th, 1778, when it was re- 
solved " that one full company of foot be raised " here 
for its defence. This really furnished no assistance, as 
this company were compelled " to find their arms, 
accoutrements, and blankets," although they were after- 
wards paid for by the United States. 

Congress has been censured by the historian in terms 
not the most flattering, for not recalling to Wyoming 
the absent soldiers under Captains Durkee and Kansom, 
but it must be remembered that the remnant of Wash- 
ington's army was retreating before the superior and 
exulting forces of the British, and had not its exhausted 
strength been invigorated sufficiently by reinforce- 
ments and recruits to meet and drive back the 
enemy at this very time, it is hardly possible to esti- 
mate the pregnant consequences to the country to-day ; 
Independence itself might have been deferred forever. 
In May, 1778, the first life was taken in Westmoreland 
near Tunkhannock, by the Indians, who each day 
became more defiant and numerous. A day or two 



THE WYOMING MASSACKE IN 1778. 143 

afterwards, a scouting party of six persons were fired 
upon a few^ miles below this, by a body of savages 
lurking along the river path, and although two of the 
whites were wounded, and one fatally so, they sprang 
into their canoe and escaped down the Susquehanna. 

Throughout the entire settlement alarm began to 
spread with painful rapidity. Persons living along the 
Lackawanna at Capouse and below, and in all the outer 
towns, either deserted their little homes and sought 
the parent State, or fled to the Wyoming forts for 
safety. If anything had been wanting in the picture of 
danger to make it more lurid with coming blood and 
tragic outline, an event simple in its character, but 
terrible in its meaning, which occurred here at this 
time, furnished it. "Two Indians, formerly residents 
of Wyoming, and acquainted with the people, came 
down with their squaws on a visit, professing warm 
friendship ; but suspicions existed that they were spies, 
and directions were given that they should be carefully 
watched. An old companion of one of them, with 
more than Indian cunning, professing his attachment 
to the natives, gave his visitor drink after drink of his 
favorite rum, when in the confidence and the fullness 
of his maudlin heart, he avowed that his peoj)le were 
prepared to cut off the settlement; the attack to be 
made soon, and that they had come down to see and 
report how things were. The squaws were dismissed, 
but the two Indians were arrested and confined in Forty 
Fort.* 

While men heard this intelligence with lips whitened 
and compressed, they at once prepared to receive those 

* Miner's History. 



144 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

who were so soon to converse with them from musket 
throats. Every instrument of death was examined, and 
fitted for instant use. Guns were repaired, bayonets 
were sharpened, bullets moulded, powder made, and 
every man and boy able to shoulder a musket, either 
fell into the ranks of a new company being formed by 
Capt. Dethic Hewit, or in the daily train-bands, expect- 
ing every messenger to proclaim the arrival of the 
invaders. Two deserters from the British army, one 
by the name of Pike from Canada, and the other a 
sergeant named Boyd from Boston, we are told by 
Miner, " were particularly useful in training the mi- 
litia." 

While these preparations along the valley were being 
made by those whose alarm amounted almost to frenzy, 
the British, Indians, and Tories, began to darken the 
waters at Ta-hi-o-ga, with a fleet of rafts, river-boats, 
and canoes, preparatory to a descent upon the " large 
plains." 

In all the wide area of territory embraced within the 
limits of Westmoreland — being about 70 miles square 
— there was then no larger gun than the old flint mus- 
ket, with the exception of a single cannon at the fort in 
Wilkes Barre. This was a four pounder, of no use, 
however, as no suitable balls were in the settlement, 
and had been brought into the colony merely for an 
alarm-gun in the Yankee and Pennymite war. The 
force of the Americans, without discipline or appropri- 
ate arms, amounted to about 400 persons, to resist the 
attack of nearly four times their number. 

The enemy, numbering about 400 British provincials, 
six or seven hundred Seneca and Mohawk Indians, 
painted for battle and dressed in their warlike costume, 



THE WYOMING MASSACRE IN 1778. 145 

and a large body of Tories from Wyoming, New York, 
and Kew Jersey, under the command of Col. John Butler, 
a British officer, and accompanied by the notorious 
Brant, left their rendezvous on Tioga Kiver, descended 
the Susquehanna, and landed on the west bank of the 
river, a little below the mouth of Bowman's Creek, and 
about twenty miles above the head of the valley. Here, 
in a shady deep curve in the river, they moored their 
boats ; marching across a rugged spur of the mountain, 
thus shortening the distance a number of miles, and on 
the 30th of June, just at the edge of evening, arrived 
on the western mountain, a little distance above the 
Tory Fort of Wintermoot. This fort, standing about 
one mile below Fort Jenkins, probably owed its incep- 
tion to British cunning and gold. From Fort Jenkins, 
eight persons who had no notice nor suspicions of the 
proximity of the enemy, had gone up the valley into 
Exeter to work upon their farms, a little distance from 
the fort, taking with them their trusty and always 
attending weapons of defence, with their agricultural 
utensils. While unsuspectingly engaged at their work, 
which they were about closing for the day, they were 
surrounded by a portion of the invading army, with 
a view of making them prisoners, so that the British 
Butler might learn the actual posture of affairs down 
in the valley. 

Surprised, but not intimidated, they chose to die by 
the bullet, rather than the hatchet or the torturing 
knife ; they fought for a few moments, killing live of 
the enemy, three Tories and two Indians, when four of 
their own number fell, and were completely cut in 
pieces by exasperated Indians ; three were taken alive, 
and a single boy leaped in the river, and aided by the 

7 



116 LACKA. WANNA VALLEY. 

grey twilight of evening escaped. One of the slain was 
a son of the barbarous Queen Esther, who accom- 
panied tlie expedition with her tribe, and whose cruel- 
ties at the Bloody Rock rendered her memory infamous 
forever. 

Fort Jenkins, thus bereft of its protectors, capitulated 
tlio same evening to Capt. Caldwell, while the united 
forces of Batler and Brant bivouacked at the friendly 
quarters of Fort Wintermoot. 'No sooner did the report 
oi musketry at the head of the valley, denote tlie pre- 
sence of the foe, then the real critical position of the 
settlement was sternly appreciated. Men not accus- 
tomed to scour the woods for miles in the vicinity of 
their frontier homes, to discover Indian trails and give 
the inhabitants warning, would liave shrunk from the 
coming struggle with dismay, but they left the scythe 
ill the swath, the plough in the furrow, and gathering 
111^ the weak and weeping ones, hurried to Forty Fort. 
This fort stood on the west bank of the river, below 
Monockonock Island and three miles above Wyoming 
Fort, where in a short time were collected the principal 
forces of Wyoming Valley, consisting of 368 men. On 
the Lackawanna side of the river at Pitts ton, and 
almost opposite Wintermoot's, Fort Brown had been 
erected, and this was garrisoned by a body of forty 
settlers under the command of Captain Blanchard. 

By the means of wily spies who were continually 
reconnoitering the plains upon either side of the river. 
Col. John Butler, soon learned how completely the en- 
tire valley was at his mercy, unless reinforcements, ex- 
pected from the main army, should arrive and relieve 
tiie inhabitants. Already were two forts in his posses- 
sion, but, not wishing to bring the Indians into a general 



THE WYOMING MASSACRE IN 17Y8. 147 

battle, where, becoming infuriato'l and completely un- 
governable after a victory, he feired they might com- 
mence those scenes of rapine and bloodshed, such as the 
fate of war too often witnessed, he sent one of the prison, 
ers taken in Exeter to Col. Zeoulon Butler, on the 
morning of the day of the battle, accompanied by a Tory 
and an Indian, demanding the immediate surrender not 
only of his own fort, but of all other ones, with all the 
public property in the valley, as ^^ell as the militia com- 
pany of Capt. Hewit as prisoners of war. He also sug- 
gested to the commander of Forty Fort the propriety of 
destroying all intoxicating drinks, provided these terms 
were rejected, for, said the British Butler, " drunken 
savages can't be controlled." Some urged the accept- 
ance of these apparently exacting, but really liberal 
terms, in the hope that the tide of slaughter might be 
stayed ; the majority opposed it, and the messenger was 
sent away with this decision. 

A council of war was immediately held in the fort. 
"While a few hoped that the absent military companies 
would arrive and furnish reinforcements sufficiently large 
to give the enemy battle, and possibly expel them from 
Wyoming, if a few days intervened ; others, more impul- 
sive and restive, replied that the force concentrated in 
the fort could march out on the plains, where, being per- 
fectly familiar with the ground, they could surprise and 
take advantage of the enemy at once ; and, as their own 
homes were already being lit by the torch, their crops 
destroyed, and the murder of the Hardings at Fort 
Jenkins was but the introduction to the drama about 
to crimson the valley, unless interrupted by offensive 
measures, they were anxious and determined to fight. 
Unfortunately, this bold but fatal couns-l prevailed. 



148 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

With tlie colonial development in Westmoreland had 
grown the love of intrn. So fixed and so general, in fact, 
had become this unmanning habit — so essential was 
whisky regarded in its sanative and commercial aspect, 
that one of the first buildings of 2i public character erect- 
ed in the colony after a stockade or fort afi*orded tem- 
porary protection to the j)ioneers, was a still or brew- 
house. The custom of drinking prevailed to an alarm- 
ing extent throughout the whole settlement. 

In accordance, however, with the suggestion of the 
British Butler, who was apprised of every movement of 
the Americans, all the liquor in the fort had been rolled 
out and emptied into the river, with the exception of a 
single barrel of whisky. The head of this was knocked 
in while the council of war was being held, and as the 
meeting was anything but harmonious, it is possible that 
the inspiring influence derived from this barrel, con- 
tributed in an eminent degree towards its deliberations. 
A gourd-shell cup in the most inviting manner floated 
in the hospitable beverage. A hard fight — and a terri- 
ble one, in fact, was expected in the course of an hour, 
and, as the drum and fife struck up an animating air 
while the soldiers marched out of the fort one by one, 
this gourd-cup, filled with whisky, was passed to each 
comrade and drank. 

Yolcanic, dangerous, and unwelcome as seems the in- 
timation of the fact at this late period, yet there is every 
reason to believe, from evidence heretofore suppressed 
from the most natural and delicate motives, that if many 
of the soldiers were not actually ineh^iated at this time, 
their ideas of their own strength were singularly con- 
fused and exalted. Col. George Dorrance, an ofiicer 
whose prudent counsels to remain in the fort were disre- 



THE WYOMING MASSACRE IN 1778. 149 

garded, was repeatedly taunted with cowardice, because 
he advised against this death-errand. However pleasant 
it might be to pass by this great error of the times — an 
error which rendered certain and merciless the fate of 
Wyoming — with the same studied silence and charity 
others have done before, justice to the living and the 
dead demands a faithful record of events. 

The forces of Brant and Col. John Butler were at 
Wintermoot's Fort, opposite Pittston. To hastily reach 
this point, and, protected by the large pine trees extend- 
ing over this portion of the plain, spring on the enemy 
unawares, was the plan adopted. The little band, num- 
bering about 850 persons, under the command of Col. 
Zebulon Butler, left the fort amid the cries of dear and 
defenceless ones. Old men whose worn and welted 
hands could hardly point the musket, and younger ones, 
whose thread of life reached short of manhood, marched 
side by side to the place of conflict. 

So great was the emergency ; so much was to be lost 
or won by the coming battle, that all left the Fort but 
the women and children. 

Silently and rapidly up along the banks of the river, 
Colonel Z. Butler led his forces within half a mile of 
Wintermoot's. Here he halted a few minutes, and sent 
forward two volunteers to reconnoitre the position and 
strength of the enemy ; these were fired upon by the 
opposing scouts, who, like the main body of the British, 
were not only apprised by Indian runners of the 
approach of the Yankees, but were prepared to give 
them a terrific reception. As the Americans approached 
the dark masses of British soldiers and painted savages, 
Wintermoot's Fort, which had served its intended and 
mischievous purpose, was set on fire by the Tories; 



150 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

why tins was done has never yet been explained. The 
British colonel at once formed his forces in battle 
order ; the provincial and Tories being placed in front 
and towards the Susquehanna, while the deep morass, 
lying to the right, concealed vast numbers of the painted 
warriors, under Bryant and Queen Esther. 

Among the tall pines, covering at this time the greater 
portion of the Wyoming plains, Col. Zebulon Butler 
placed his men so as better to resist the first attack of the 
enemy, which were preparing to commence the battle. 

Colonels Butler and Dorrance each urged the soldiers 
to meet the first shock with firmness, as their lives and 
their homes depended on the issue. Hardly had the 
words been heard along the line, before the bullets of 
the enemy began to thin the ranks of the Connecticut 
party, which, to defend their firesides, had thus, in this 
weak and injudicious condition, marched forth to 
battle with over a thousand men. " About four in the 
afternoon the battle began ; Col. Z. Butler ordered his 
men to fire, and at each discharge to advance a step. 
Along the whole line the discharges were rapid and 
steady. It was evident, on the more open ground the 
Yankees were doing most execution. As our men 
advanced, pouring in their platoon fires with great 
vivacity, the British line gave way, in spite of all their 
officers' efforts to prevent it. The Indian flanking 
party on our right, kept up from their hiding-places a 
galling tire. Lieut. Daniel Gore received a ball through 
the left arm. " Captain Durkee," said he, " look sharp 
for the Indians in those bushes." Captain D. stepped to 
the bank to look, preparatory to making a charge and 
dislodging them, when he fell. On die British Butler's 
right, his Indian warriors were sharply engaged. They 



THE WYOMING MASSACRE IN 1778. 151 

seemed to be divided into six bands, for a yell would be 
raised at one end of tlie line, taken up, and carried 
through six distinct bodies appearing at each time to repeat 
the cry. As the battle waxed warmer, that fearful yell 
was renewed again and again, with more and more spirii. 
It appeared to be at once their animating shout, aiid 
their signal of communication. As several fell near 
Col. Dorrance, one of his men gave way ; " Stand up to 
your work, sir," said he, firmly but coolly, and the 
soldier resumed his place. 

For half an hour a hot fire had been given and sus- 
tained, when the vastly superior numbers of the enemy 
began to develop its power. The Indians had tlirowu 
into the swamp a large force, which now completely 
outflanked our left. It was impossible it should be 
otherwise : that wing was thrown into confusion. Col. 
Dennison gave orders that the company of Whittlesey 
should wheel back, so as to form an angle with the main 
line, and thus present his front instead of flank, to the 
enemy. The difiiculty of performing evolutions, by the 
bravest militia, on the field, under a hot fire, is well 
known. On the attempt the savages rushed in with 
horrid yells. Some had mistaken the order to fall l)acl\ 
as one to retreat^ and that word, that fatal word, ran 
along the line. Utter confusion now prevailed on the 
left. Seeing the disorder, and his own men beginning 
to give way. Col. Z. Butler threw himself between the 
fires of the opposing ranks, and rode up and down the 
in the most reckless exposure. 

"Don't leave me, my children, and the victory is 



Miner's History. 



152 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

The treacherous whisky and the murderous bullets 
had done their work. Had the soldiers been in a 
condition to have understood and obeyed the proper 
orders of Col. Dennison, whatever might have been the 
final result of the engagement, it is hardly possible that 
the scenes of cruelty and bloodshed which rendered that 
afternoon memorable in the history of Wyoming would 
have been enacted. 

When it was seen that defeat had come, the confusion 
became general. Some fought in the hopeless conflict, 
and fell upon the battle-ground, mangled by the bayonet 
or the hatchet : others, throwing away their guns, fled in 
wild disorder down the valley toward Forty Fort, or 
"Wilkes Barre, followed by the Indians, whose belts were 
soon lined with the scalps of the slain. 

" A portion of the Indian flanking party pushed for- 
ward in the rear of the Connecticut line, to cut ofi" re- 
treat to Forty Fort, and then pressed the retreating 
army toward the river. Monockasy Island affording 
the only hope of crossing, the stream of flight flowed in 
that direction through fields of grain."* The Tories, 
even more atrocious than the whooping red-men, also 
hastened after the fugitives. 

Mr. Carey and Judge Hollenback were standing side 
by side when they saw the victorious forces sweeping 
down upon them ; Carey ran, while Hollenback threw 
away his gun, his hat, his coat and vest, and started to- 
wards Wilkes Barre. A gold piece he had taken from his 
vest-pocket, he placed in his mouth, thus showing the 
strength of the ruling passion, even at the door of death. 
Being thus divested of his clothing, he soon was enabled 

* Miner's History, 



THE WYOMING MASSACRE IN 17Y8. 153 

to leave his weaker comrades far in the rear, swam the 
river, and was the first to tell the painful tale of defeat 
to the remaining ones in Wilkes Barre. Carey fled to 
the right towards the river, where, under its sheltering 
bank, he sank down on the sand too exhausted to swim, 
still retaining his musket. He heard the quick footsteps 
of the retreating fugitives, and as they were plunging 
in the water to reach Pittston Fort, saw the tomahawk 
sink them in the quiet Susquehanna. Upon the bank 
below him he saw three of the Americans clubbed to 
death by the Tories. His own musket, with its reddened 
bayonet, he grasped in his hand, determined to sell his 
life as dearly as possible, if necessary ; but as he was 
not discovered by them, he swam the river and 
escaped. 

The cruelties practised by the Tories and Indians 
after the defeat, one instance will suffice to illustrate. 
A short distance below the battle-ground, there lay in 
the languid waters of the river, a large, long Island, 
covered with willows and wild-grass, called " Monock 
Island." As the path down the valley swarmed with 
warriors, few of the fleeing soldiers could hope to escape 
this way in safety, so many fled to this island, defence- 
less, exhausted, and almost naked. This was perceived 
by the ruthless Tories, who followed in pursuit, reached 
the island, and deliberately wiped their guns dry, pre- 
paratory to finishing their murderous drama. One of 
the Tories, who had just loaded his gun, saw lying half- 
concealed in the deep grass before him, his own hrother. 
Perceiving that he was discovered, he came towards his 
Tory kinsman, and falling on his knees, called him by 
name, and implored him not to kill him ; promising to 
be his slave as long as he lived, if only his life was 



154 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

spared. " All this is mighty good," replied the demo 
niac Tory, with a sardonic smile, as he again pointed to- 
wards his brother his obedient gun, " but you're a d — d 
rebel !" and shot him dead. Such was the spirit 
breathed at the Wyoming massacre. 

Col. Z. Butler reached Wilkes Fort in safety, where 
many of the families were preparing to flee across the 
mountains to the Delaware. Mothers and children anx- 
iously watching for the news, stood on the river bank at 
Forty Fort, and soon learned from the closer report of 
musketry, and from the fleeing soldiers, the result of 
the battle. About dusk, Capt. John Franklin arrived 
at the Fort with thirty-five fresh men, who at once 
took every precaution to prevent a surprise during the 
night. 

After the battle and the chase had ceased, the scenes 
of torture commenced. Opposite the mouth of the 
Lackawanna, and almost under the shadows of " Camp- 
bell's Ledge," a band of Indians had gathered their 
prisoners in a circle, stripped them of all their clothing, 
and, with their bloody spears drove them into the flames 
of a large tire, amidst their agonizing cries, and the yells 
of the infuriated savages. On the battle-ground, was 
cleft each scalp of the dead and the dying, before the 
bloody work was adjourned to " Bloody Rock." Around 
this large rock, some eighteen of the prisoners, who had 
been taken under the solemn promise of quarter, were 
collected and surrounded by a ring of warriors under 
the command of Esther, Queen of the Seneca tribe, 
whose natural malignity was rendered more intense and 
ferocious by the loss of her favorite son, who was slain 
at Exeter, by Zebulon Marcy, a day or two previous. 
In the battle she had led her Indian column with more 



THE WYOMING MASSACliE IN 1778. 155 

than Indian bravery, and now around the fatal ring was 
she to avenge her loss. Seizing the Avar-club with both 
of her hands, or the merciless hatchet in her right, she 
walked around the ring, and as suited her whim, dashed 
out the brains of a prisoner. Only two escaped. The 
mangled bodies of fourteen or fifteen were afterwards 
found around this rock, where they had fallen scalped, 
and shockingly mangled. Nine more were found in a 
similar circle, some distance above.^ 

In the battle and the massacre about 160 of the Con- 
necticut people fell, and 140 escaped. 

The surviving settlers fled towards the Del aw^ are. 
Before them frowned the foodless forest, since known as 
the '* Shades of Death," and behind, save the low w^ail 
of the scattered fugitives, who were clambering up the 
mountain side by the light of their burning homes — all 
w^as silence. The dweller in wigwams had revenged too 
cruelly his wrongs — the Tory, by his club and bayonet, 
had forfeited what little remembrance of honor or right 
he claimed over the wild man — the British soldier, led 
hither by command, turned away from the sickening, 
unsoldierlike scenes of the day — and all sank on the 
shady plain of the old Indian Empire, for short repose. 

Early on the morning of the 4:th, the Eorts at Pitts- 
ton surrendered to Col. J. Butler, upon the following 
terms : 

" Articles of Capitulation for three Forts at Lacawa- 
nack, 4th July, 1778. Akt. 1st.— That the difi'ereDfc 
Commanders of the said Forts, do immediately deliver 
them up, with all the arms, ammunition and stores, in 
the said forts. 

* Miner, 



156 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

a 2d. — Major Butler promises that the lives of the 
men, women, and children be preserved intire." * 

These terms were complied with, and not a person in 
Pittston was molested by the Indians ; all the prisoners 
in the forts were marked with black war-paint, which 
exempted them from the attack of any straggling 
bodies. 

The same afternoon Forty Fort was surrendered to 
Major John Butler, upon terms far more advantageous 
to the garrison than could have been expected, as can be 
seen by the articles of capitulation. 

" Art. 1st. — ^That the inhabitants of the settlement lay 
down their arms, and the garrison be demolished. 

''2d. — That the inhabitants are to occupy their farms 
peaceably, and the lives of the inhabitants preserved 
intire and unhurt. 

" 3d. — ^That the Continental stores be delivered 
up. 

"4th. — ^That Major Butler will use his utmost influ- 
ence that the private property of the inhabitants shall 
be preserved intire to them. 

" 5th. — ^That the prisoners in Forty Fort be delivered 
up, and that Samuel Finch, now in Major Butler's pos- 
session, be delivered up also. 

" 6th. — That the property taken from the people 
called Tories, up the river, be made good ; and they to 
remain in peaceable possession of their farms, unmo- 
lested in a free-trade, in and throughout this State, as 
far as lies in my power. 

" Tth. — That the inhabitants, that Colonel Dennistou 



* Miner. — Copied from Her Majesty's State Paper Documents io 
London. 



THE WYOMING MASSACRE IN 1778. 157 

now capitulates for, together with himself, do not take 
up arms (luring the present contest. 

(Signed), " Nathan Denniston, 

"John Butler, 
" Zarah Beech, "Samuel Gustin, 
" John Johnson, " Wm. Caldwell.""^ 
The only person known to have been in the fort at 
that time who is yet living, is Mrs. Deborah Bedford^ 
the pious and aged mother of Dr. Andrew Bedford, 
of Abington. She is now in her eighty-fifth year, and 
although she was hardly six years old at tliis time, 
retains yet a vivid recollection of the events transpiring 
when Butler, Brant, and Queen Esther, marched into 
the fort. 

Honest, and even honorable as was the British Butler 
in signing the articles of capitulation, he was unable to 
restrain the Indians from plundering and breaking open 
all the trunks in search of whisky, which had previously 
been poured into the river by the settlers. They ran- 
sacked every place, and with their tomahawks broke 
into the floors and partitions, without finding the 
object of their search. Baftled in this, they rifled 
boxes and chests ; clothes were rudely taken from the 
men, and even tobacco, pipes, and money, in spite of 
the orders of the British Commander ; but among all 
those who surrendered in the fort, not a single life was 
taken with the exception of that of Sergeant Boyd, who 
was ordered to be shot by Col. Butler, as a deserter. 

Permission was given by the British Butler for some 
of the inmates of the fort to build a raft or a boat, and 
go down the Susquehanna. One was thus built by Dr 

* Miner. 



158 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

Samuel Giistin and James Sutton, near the fort, and on 
the morning of the loth of July, 1778, James Sutton, 
father of Mrs. Bedford, Polly, Deborah, and William 
Sutton, Louisa Burnham, a girl given them. Dr. Gustin, 
his father, mother, and one grandchild, with Sarah, 
Polly, and William Gustin, a child given to the doctor, 
and his housekeeper, started from Forty Fort, in a boat 
or scow so leaky as to be impossible to keep it afloat 
without continual bailing. 

Landing for a short time at Northumberland, Dr. 
Gustin gave the little girl away, who, when she saw 
herself thus left, cried piteously after her late protectors. 
A Bible, a little clothing and a scanty supply of 
corn meal were all that was taken by the party in the 
boat. They landed at the ferry of Harris (now Harris- 
burg), with about $100 in Continental currency, and 
flnding an empty house or cabin here, took possession 
of it at once. After the close of the w^ar, Sutton 
returned to the valley with his family, and for many 
years was a partner with Dr. William Hooker Smith, 
in the iron business at Old Forge. 

On Wednesday, the eighth of July, only five days after 
the battle. Col. Butler left Wyoming with all the force 
he could control, sick with the scenes of cruelty and 
bloodshed he had witnessed around the camj^-fires in 
the valley. " With Butler a large portion of the Indians 
withdrew, and their march presented a picture at once 
melancholy and ludicrous. Squaws, to a considerable 
number, brought up the rear, a belt of scalps stretched 
on small hoops, around the waist for a girdle, having on 
some four, some six, and even more, dresses of chintz 
or silk, one over the other; being mounted astride on 
horses, of course all stolen, and on their heads three, 



THE WYOMINa MASSACRE IN 1778. 159 

four, or five bonnets, one within the other, worn wrong- 
side before."^ 

Strangling parties of Indians yet prowled around 
the encircling mountain, burning the village of Wilkes 
Barre, consisting of twenty-three houses, and skulked 
along the plains, where yet lay the unburied dead. 
Most of those who had perished in the battle lay on the 
Held where they had fallen, until the 22d of October, 
when a large hole was dug by the settlers, into which 
the half decayed, unrecognized bodies of the slain were 
deposited with little form and display, as the Indians 
were known to be but little distance off. 

A short time previous to this, Isaac Tripp the elder, 
Isaac Tripp, his grandson, and two young men, named 
Keys and Hocksey, were taken prisoners in Provi- 
dence. The Tripps were painted with war-paint and 
released, while their comrades were killed in Abington, 
the next morning. 

The Wyoming Massacre, so butcher-like in its charac- 
ter, gave birth to the celebrated expedition of General 
Sullivan, who with 2,500 troops passed through Wyo- 
ming July 31, 1779, for the Indian settlements, along 
the upper waters of the Susquehanna, where, after lay- 
ing waste the Indian country as far as the Genesee 
Kiver, he returned by way of Tioga to Wyoming, the 
seventh of October, 1779. 



THE SIGNAL TREE. 

Standing on any of the peaks of the Moosic Moun- 
tain, some twenty miles distant from Wyoming, and 

* Miner. 



160 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

by the aid of a glass, or even with the naked eye, 
when the morning is clear, can be seen looming np from 
the surrounding trees, covering the summit of the 
mountain, lying north of the monument, a slim pine 
tree, its trunk so shorn of its limbs to the very top, that 
with the umbel spread of its deep foliage, it resembles 
a great umbrella. Over the tops of all the other trees 
along the valley, this one floats with a kingly air, and 
when the sun sinks behind the hills, this tall monarch of 
the forest is the last to catch a glimpse of the descend- 
ing light. This tree is known as the signal tree. Tra- 
dition tells that at the time of the battle, an Indian was 
stationed in the top of the tree, so that when the defeat 
of the whites was announced by the louder peals of the 
war-whoop, he commenced to cut off the limbs of the 
tree, and as this could be seen many miles from every 
direction, parties of Indians were thus informed to watch 
the paths leading out of the valley and prevent the 
escape of the fugitives. This, however, is mere tradi- 
tion. A more reasonable interpretation of the matter 
is this : Some years ago one of the knots of this tree was 
removed, and from the concentric rings or yearly 
growths indicated by them, the lopping of the limbs 
was dated back to 1762 — the first year a settlement was 
commenced here by the whites — thus showing quite 
clearly that the tree had been trimmed previous to the 
massacre, and that it had been used by the emigrating 
parties from Connecticut, as a guiding tree to the Wyo- 
ming lands, where a colony, with no roads but the war- 
rior's pathway, and but little knowledge of a reliable 
character of the locality of the new country, crossed 
the frowning mountains, mostly on foot, and made a per- 
manent residence here in 1769. 



SETTLEMENT AROUND PROVIDENCE BOROUGH. 161 



SETTLEMENT AROUND PROVIDENCE BOROUGH. 

The District of Providence,* in the old town and 
county of Westmoreland, was originally surveyed by 
Isaac Tripp the elder, and John Jenkins, and was five 
miles square. After the Indian sale of these lands, in 
1754, to the Susquehanna Company, a considerable 
portion of them now lying in the middle and upper part 
of Providence Township, fell into the hands of Captain 
John Howard, of Connecticut, by a draft. 

So remote, in fact, from the parent State, and so iso- 
lated from the larger colony upon the Susquehanna, and 
swarming with wild tribes and beasts of prey, as were 
these lands at this time, they ofi"ered to the first emi- 
grating parties inhospitality and peril. Over this dis- 
trict the hunter — not the imbecile creature who to-day, 
with shot-gun stretched from his arms, blazes away at 
every feeble songster before it falls a trophy to his own 
more feeble genius — but the hunter whose life and the 
lives of a whole family were often intrusted to his gun, 
found the exciting chase, and the sometimes terrible 
encounters in the forest, more congenial to his taste than 
rustic and slow agriculture. 

Providence was the only certified, or Yankee town, 
on the Lackawanna above Pittston, being divided into 
lots of 300 acres each, generally running back two and 
a half miles. Those not reserved for public purposes, 

* Providence took its name from Providence, R. I., which was founded 
in 1637 by the famous Roger Williams. The origin of the name of that 
Providence is explained in a curious deed executed by him : " Having a 
sense of God's merciful providence unto me in my duties, I called the 
name Providence." 



162 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

were thrown into market by the proprietors of the town, 
to be sold upon terms the most advantageous to the 
Susquehanna Company. There being at this time but 
little disposition to settle upon any lands lying above 
Capouse Meadow, much of them came under the control 
of Captain John Howard, Christopher Avery, and Isaac 
Tri})p the elder. None of the three made a pitch here 
except Tripp. 

A lot "in ye Township of Providence, alious Capouse," 
originally laid out to Colonel Lodwick Ojidirk, passed 
into the hands of Jonathan Slocum in 1771, " on account 
of Doeing ye Duty of a settler " for said Ojidirk. This 
tract of land, containing about 180 acres, came into the 
possession of James Bagley April 29th, 1778. Bagley 
was driven away the ensuing summer by the Indians, 
but returned again after the close of the war. 

The old records tell us that, in 1772, the Committee 
at Wilkes Barre " sertiiie that Mr. Ebenezer Searles is 
Intitled to a Right of Land in N^ewprovidence," but it 
does not appear that he ever saw or settled upon it. 
Above Providence village, James Leggett made the first 
clearing in the woods in 1775, near the mouth of one of 
the wild tributaries of the Lackawanna, known now as 
" Leggett's Creek." A few months later, Thomas Pichit 
made a purchase of 100 acres of land in the Capouse, 
adjoining that of Leggett, of Christopher Avery. His 
right was easily obtained, for the land was given him 
merely for " ye Consideration of Certain Duties & Ser- 
vices Done for " said Avery. In August, 1775, Benja- 
min Baily purchased of Solomon Strong a " Certain 
Peace of Ground in ye township of Providence at 
Capouse Meadow, near Capouse River." ^ The charac- 

* The Lackawanna was called by this name by the first emigrants. 



SETTLEMENT AROUND PEOVIDENCE BOROUGH. 163 

ter of this region was too stern for his genial nature, so 
he sold his lot to Tripp for a few furs and " a flint gun." 
In June, 1777, Matthew Dalson bought 375 acres of 
land " on ye Capouse River so called," bounded on the 
north by " Lands Bolonging to one Loggit." Part of 
this purchase was the present farm known as " old Uncle 
Joshua Griflin's." 

As we have before stated, Isaac Tripp the elder, and 
Isaac Tripp, his grandson, both fell by Indian bullets 
during the Revolutionary War. Seven years later, in 
IT 86, another Isaac Tripp emigrated from Greenwich, 
R. I., accompanied by his son Stephen, then a lad of 
only ten summers. He brought no other members of 
his family at this time, so that his residence at Capouse 
was not permanent until two or three years later. 

Isaac married Miss Patty Wall, by whom he had — 
Elizabeth, Polly, William, Susan, Amasa, Stephen, 
Isaac, Martha, Catharine, Holden, and Nancy. The last 
named, or " Aunt Kancy Vaughn," is yet living. 

Stephen Tripp married Miss Mary Benedict, by whom 
he had — 

Horace, married Alvira Stevens. 

Harriet, " Samuel Church. 

Samuel, " Sally Brown. 

Wisener. 

William, " Delilah Thompson. 

Polly, unmarried. 

Fanny, married Armstrong. 

Isaac Tripp, Jr., or fourth^ married Miss Catharine 
Lafronse, by whom he had — Diana, Benjamin, Ira, Isaac, 
Mahala, Maria, Holden, and Catharine. 



164 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

The descendants of Isaac are yet living in the valley 
and are among our most active and energetic citizens. 

In April, 1799, Isaac Tripp sold a portion of his farm 
in Capoiise to his son Stephen, " for 800 pounds of law- 
ful money," and the remainder at the same time passed 
into the hands of Isaac Tripp, Jr. 

The first clearing made by the white man in what is 
now known as Providence Borough, was commenced 
in 1788 by Enoch Holmes, who emigrated from White 
Plains, New York, the previous year. 

The single apple-tree, bereft of all its mates by de- 
stroying hands, now standing near the residence of E. 
S. M. Hill, Esq., marks the original location of his log 
cabin. Here he lived two years, clearing enough land 
to raise the necessary corn and potatoes for his family, 
although sometimes he was compelled to subsist on veni- 
son and bear-meat alone. From trees and brakes found 
along the stream, he constructed brooms and baskets, 
taking them to the Wyoming Yalley to exchange for 
the most needful commodities. 

An Englishman from New York, named Charles 
Unam, purchased his right and improvement, but his 
abilities to endure the privations of forest life being of 
an order so inferior, he soon left his land in the hands of 
John Phillips, of Pittston, to dispose of, moved to 
Charleston, South Carolina, where he died the same 
year with the yellow fever. 

His widow married a man in the Palmetto State, a 
short time after, by the name of Bradshaw, who, as late 
as 1816, visited Providence in search of lands belonging 
to his wife. 

This property, comprising the greater portion of what 
is now Providence, was sold to James Griffin in the 



SETTLEMENT AROUND PROVIDENCE BOROUGH. 165 

winter of 1812, by Taylor, as the agent of Unam. Grif- 
fin, with his three children,* moved into the valley 
when it was frosted and white with snow in the follow- 
ing winter, taking possession of this solitary log-house. 

Nathaniel Cottrill and Elisha S. Potter, Esq., pur- 
chased fourteen acres of this tract of Griffin, in 1828, for 
$4,000, but subsequently it passed into Cottrill's hands 
alone. 

The next settler in this immediate vicinage after 
Holmes, was Daniel Waderman, a soldier of the Kevo- 
lution. Charged with being a Hessian soldier — the 
facts are these : 

Of pure German extraction, Waderman was a native 
of Hamburg. Yisiting England upon business entirely 
of a personal nature, he was seized by the British press- 
gang and forced into British service, according to their 
custom at the time of the war with her American Colo- 
nies and previous to this. He was present at the battle 
of Bunker Hill, in 1775, where General Gage won so 
little glory for himself or his troops. Returning to 
Portsmouth, England, to winter, the next spring he ac- 
companied Burgoyne to Quebec. After wintering at 
Montreal, we find him the ensuing summer in an en- 
gagement on the Mohawk, where he was taken prisoner 
by the friendly Stockbridge Indians, after which he 
enlisted in the American service, and by his faithful 
service as a private soldier in the army from 1779 to the 
close of the war, furnished the best evidence of his 
fidelity and sympathy with colonial arms. J^ear where 
now stands the house of Daniel Silkman, in Providence 
Borough, Waderman erected his barky cabin in 1790, 

* Elias and Ezekiel Griffin, and Mrs. John Stevens. 



166 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

where lie lived for a period of twenty-one years, when 
he removed farther np the valley, and died in 1835. 
Preserved Taylor came into Providence about the same 
time of Waderman, and settled just below the house of 
Stephen Tripp, on the Hyde Park road. Two years 
later, Constant Searles emigrated to the valley. 

In 1791, the name of Griffin first appears in the val- 
ley, and as this portion of country is now numerously 
represented by them, they deserve a passing notice. 

The original branch of the family, from whence sprung 
the descendants here, lived in Westchester county, New 
York. Joseph Grtffin was born there, where he also 
died, leaving twelve children, viz : Mary, Phebe, James, 
Thomas, Tamer, Hannah, Stephen, Anna, Elizabeth, 
Sarah, Joseph, and Deborah. Of his children, the first 
to emigrate here was Stephen Gkiffin, who, in 1794 
left the banks of the Hudson, and taking the only bridle 
path or road leading across the mountains from Orange 
county into it from the east, located himself here, and 
at once commenced to battle with the forest in Provi- 
dence, near the new and narrow clearing of Coonrad 
Lutz. He married Miss Polly Place, by whom he had 
Matilda, who married Benjamin Slociim. 



Jackson, 




Miss E'esbit. 


Jerusha, 




Henry Fellows. 


Armilla, 




Israel Loovner. 


Maria, 




Sylvenas Fellows. 


Sarah, 




Philip Wickizer. 


Mary, 




Benedict. 



Thomas Griffin was the next one of the family who 
became a resident of the valley in 1811. He purchased 
a piece of land of John Hollenback, lying below Provi- 



SETTLEMENT AROUND PROVIDENCE BOROTJGH. 167 

dence village, married Maria Briindage, by whom ho 
had eight children, some of whom are still enjoying the 
patrimony. 

Next to the youngest child of Joseph Griffin, Sen., 
was a young man of vigorous constitution and temper- 
ate habits, who emigrated to the valley in 1816, and 
who now is known throughout the valley by the familiar 
name of " Uncle Joe." On the commanding hill lying 
below Hyde Park, where yet the old gentleman resides, 
stretches out the farm he purchased of Reuben Taylor. 

After the land in Westmoreland passed from the wild 
man to the whites, Timothy Keys lirst began to bring 
light and love into the grand old forest then covering 
this farm. Keys fell by the hatchet in 1778, and this 
farm, after passing through the hands of his heirs, after 
the war had closed, came into the possession of Keuben 
Taylor, who afterw^ards sold it to Griffin. This is one of 
the pieces of land upon w^hich Doctor W. Hooker Smith, 
nearly seventy years ago, purchased for a mere trifle, 
the right to mine ore, " and a certain mineral called 
stone coal." Uncle Joe married Miss Thorn for his first 
wife, and Miss Hoysradt for his second, by whom he 
had seven children. 

The productiveness of the different Griffin families can 
be inferred from the fact, that in the year of 1820, while 
the mother of Joseph Griffin was living with him in Pro- 
vidence, there were then residing within a radius of a 
hundred miles, over one hundred of her children and 
her grand-children, besides an uncounted multitude of 
great-grandchildren. Eight members of this family had 
nine children each, while two, disregarding the respec- 
table standard of nine, enumerated the total number of 
twenty-six children as their own. Uncle Joe, filled the 



168 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

office of Justice of the Peace for some years, (liis com- 
mission bears date Oct. 24:th, 1832,) and, in 1839, re- 
presented Luzerne county in the State Legislature ; 
being the first person ever chosen from the valley for 
this purpose, with the single exception of Isaac Tripp, 
the elder, who, some fifty years before, was sent to 
Connecticut, to show the wants and the condition of the 
colony in Westmoreland. 

Tamkk Gkiffin, one of the daughters of the senior 
Joseph, married Selah Mead, in Westchester, moving 
into the valley in 1812. The same year James Griffin 
settled in Providence. He married Miss Clapp, by 
whom he had — 

Marium, married Huffman. 
Eliza, " Elder John Miller. 

Ezekiel, Samuel, Elias, Philip and James. 

At the time of his arrival here, there was no other 
residence in the immediate vicinity of the log-house he 
purchased, but tlie plain cabin of Waderman's, standing 
about a cpiarter of a mile above. 

One of the pioneers at this time was Eltsha S. Potter. 
Hearing of the rich, lowlands which were sold so cheap 
along the Lackawanna, he left his native place, White 
Hall, New York, to seek his fortune here, settling in 
Blakely. In this portion of country, Potter was the 
first justice of the peace, and, and so well were the 
vexatious duties of the magistrate performed by him, 
that the litigating parties seeking redress, were gener- 
rally satisfied with his impartial judgment and decisions. 
He was the father of the late lamented Charles W. 
Potter, Esq., of Dunmore. 

Isaac Gkiffin, oldest son of Thomas, appeared here in 



EDMUND GEIFFIN. 169 

the summer of 1816. Moving into tlie house of Joseph, 
with him his first child, Edmund was born soon after- 
wards. The fine farm now owned by Dr. Robinson, in 
Providence — a man, who, for the last half century, has 
thrown the healing mantle of Elisha over the inhabi- 
tants of the Lackawanna Yalley, was given to Isaac the 
same year by his father. He sold this to the doctor, and 
located himself permanently in " Razorville," on a por- 
tion of the property previously purchased by James. 
Born in the wilderness almost, as Edmund was, he early 
learned among the solitary nooks and lonely walks 
that, 

" To climb steep hills, 
Requires slow steps at first." 

Upon his father's farm he found too little to amuse 
his restless nature, so he went to Peekskill, I^. Y., where 
some relatives resided. Being observed one day by a 
grocery-man from l^ew York city, who was struck with 
the quick, bold, ofl'-hand manner of the lad, he at once 
engaged him as an errand-boy, at eight dollars per 
month and found. After a few months his wages was 
raised to twelve dollars. The slender product of his in- 
dustry, he remitted monthly with conscientious exact- 
ness to his parents in Providence. This filial feature, 
as well as others, so unusual in a young man, naturally 
attracted the notice of his employer, who, on the very 
day Edmund attained his twentieth year, told him to 
consider himself of age, as from that time he could carry 
on the business as his own. From that day his fortime 
was made. 

In the spring of 1849, Edmund Griffin was chosen 
Assistant Alderman, in the First Ward in New York 

8 



170 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

city, and in the following November, elected Alderman 
for two years. From January, 1850, to January, 1852, he 
represented this ward in a manner highly creditable to 
himself, and satisfactory to those who had intrusted their 
interest into his hands. "The great rise in coal lands in 
his native valley, of which he largely took the advan- 
tage, placed the " Alderman," as he is generally called, 
in a position of ease and social standing, not often 
reached in so short a time. linear the old home- 
stead, bordering the ancient Indian clearing of Capouse, 
the Alderman a few years ago sought retirement ; and 
the massive, hospitable mansion, standing by the road- 
side, between Providence and Scranton, near the for- 
mer village, is his present residence. 



BLAKEL Y. 

In April, 1808, Blakely* Township was formed from 
" a part of Providence, including a corner of Greenfield, 
east of the Lackawanna mountain." 

'No real settlement was attempted here until after the 
close of the Kevolutionary War. In 1Y86, Timothy 
Stevens, a veteran wdio had served in the war from its 
inception to its close, with no little courage, emigrated 
from Westchester, New York, settling here in the depth 
of the forest. No " Indian clearings " were found here, 
and his path, marked upon tree-sides with the axe, fur- 
nished the only guide for advancing or retreating foot- 



* Named from Capt. Blakely of the U. S. sloop of war Wasp, who sig- 
nalized himself iu an engagement with the British brig Avon. — Chap- 
man. 



A SINGULAR CHARACTER. 171 

steps. Here, immured in the wilderness, where the 
pulse of the great world only throbbed in storms and 
winds, he cleared enough of the land around him to 
show its fertility, and lived many years upon it, with 
his family alone. 

This was upon the place now known as the Mott 
farm, where, in 1814, he built a grist-mill upon the 
Lackawanna, subsequently known as " Mott's Mill." 



A SINGULAR CHARACTER. 

There was a strange character here in 1795, about 
whom there was a good deal of mystery. He carried a 
gold snuff-box, from which he was incessantly inspiring 
his nose, wore an olive velvet coat, was a man of 
considerable literary attainment : exhibiting a good 
deal of 

" Grandeur's remains and gleams of other days." 

His name was Nicholas Leuchens. With a classic edu- 
cation, he had mastered seven modern languages, and 
had once been a large German merchant in Hamburg. 
He loved the imposing and the mysterious, and at his 
wedding in Germany, had expended one thousand 
pounds sterling for that purpose. 

Before ^N'apoleon began to make Europe tremble with 
the force of his genius and his arms, Leuchens fled from 
his native shore, landing in Philadelphia, August 25th, 
1795. Wyoming Yalley, with all its loveliness, had 
been pictured to him in poetry and song, and hither he 
sought the promised land. 



1T2 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

After his arrival here he left the yet disturbed valley, 
pushing up in the forest and clearing, along the Lacka- 
wanna, until the flats in Blakely, where now stands 
Peck's Mill, were reached. Here he built his German 
fortress, in the shape of the rudest log-house. 

This was thirteen years before Blakely was formed, 
and at that time Leuchens was the only real settler in 
this portion of Providence, except Stevens, living about 
two miles below. Finding no owner for the land, he took 
possession of five hundred acres, for which he afterwards 
agreed to pay Hollenback and Fisher fifty cents per 
acre. He never, however, paid a cent. Here he built 
his plain habitation, with barks and boughs for its roof; 
with only one room, in which he successively piled 
layer after layer of his beds, until they almost reached 
the very roof, so as better to defy the approach of 
ghosts, of which he was especially afraid. 

Although he was sixty-two years old at the time, he 
kept a district school for boys, in the old jail in Wilkes 
Barre, in 1806, and one of his pupils ^ then, relates the 
following of his school : On a little basin of water, 
called "Yankee Pond," lying just back of this old 
schoolhouse, there was during the winter months, gene- 
rally, good and safe skating — skating too, presenting 
more attraction and probable a healthier development to 
the mind and the muscles of boyhood than all the 
advantages of his school. Passionate as Leuchens was, 
so little control had he over his school, that some of the 
larger boys would go out to skate without permission ; 
another would ask to go, and not returning, recruit after 
recruit would be sent after the rebellious ones until none 

* Anson Goodrich. 



A SINGULAR CHARACTEE. 173 

were left to do homage to the master, when he would 
go himself, animated with the remaining virtues of the 
birch or the ferule. Being old, and quite near sighted, 
.before he could discover which were his scholars, they, 
taking advantage of his misfortune, would pelt him so 
vigorously with snow-balls, that he neither could find 
his pupils, nor trace out the authors of the mischief. 
At this time he used during the year twenty-four 
pounds of snufi" and tobacco, and presented a peculiar 
appearance ; his whiskers, which never held less than a 
tea-cup full of snuff in their brownish jungle, were 
completely frosted over. 

The forcep like grasp of the German merchant distin- 
guishing him in other days forsook him on his farm, 
as rapidly as did his fortune ; he grew aimless, indolent 
and disheartened, and in a few years later, returned to 
Philadelphia, where he ended his earthly pilgrimage, 
and was buried by the hand of charity. 

A remaining son, whom he called " God save Francis 
Leuchens," possessed many of his father's singularities, 
and but little of his father's genius. 

His ladder to fame consisted of a yellow pair of buck- 
skin breeches. These were his standard of beauty, giv- 
ing to his manhood the faultless and finishing touch. 

Eeturning one day from the cave, with a roll of butter 
for his dinner, he stumbled to the ground with the 
unctuous mass. Eather than it should waste in the 
noon-day sun, he oiled his " buckskins " from top to toe 
with the softening compound, which, presenting such a 
triumph of genius over grease, was regarded as the only 
brilliant achievement in his lifetime. 

Upon the road from Providence to Carbondale, the 
observer cannot fail to notice, in Blakely, lying just 



174: LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

below the road in the meadow, to the southeast, a large 
orchard, where John Yaughn, who had seen some ser- 
vice in border warfare, settled with his sons in 1797. A 
man named Ralph had made a clearing on the east side 
of the Lackawanna, below Leuchens, the year previous ; 
this passed into the hands of Ferris in 1798. Moses 
DoLPH, the grandfather of Edward Dolph, Esq., also 
made a pitch here in 1798 ; he had eleven children, all 
of whom have passed away, except Alexander Dolph, 
who yet lives on the patrimony. At this time no white 
man had settled farther up the valley than Leuchens, 
and sparse and poor indeed were the cabins standing 
between here and the Wyoming Yalley. Mt. Yernon, the 
present residence of L. S. Watres, Esq., was settled in 
1812. The forbidding aspect of the country along the 
borders of the forest, the long severe winters with 
their prodigious depth of snow, rising often with 
its long, white lines of drift, to the very tops of 
the cabins, and the absence of all roads to commu- 
nicate with the settlement below, imposed upon the 
inhabitants the most exacting hardships. Markings 
upon trees along the woods directed the path of 
the pioneer. No bridge spanned the Lackawanna at 
this time, and all the streams were forded if passed 
at all. Once swollen, and wild by the lengthened rain 
or spring freshet, and all intercourse with the neighbor- 
hood was suspended as much as when the winter months 
sometimes made the streams formidable. 

Nor was this all, neither churches, schoolhouses, nor 
mills, nor any of those comforts so essential to domestic 
life, existed here. The product of the soil in the shape 
of Indian corn, was either broken up after the Indian 
fashion, by the stone or wooden mortar and pestle, or 



YANKEE WAY OF PULLING A TOOTH. ^ 175 

boiled and eaten wliole. Bear meat, venison, potatoes, 
and the scanty salt comprised the luxm-ies of the day — 
potatoes in one instance became so scarce that those 
planted for seed, were re-dug in one instance to sustain 
a family perishing from hunger. 

For many years, especially during the spring and 
autumn months, wolves became so bold and voracious 
that large fires were built around the inclosures holding 
the sheep and cattle, while the howl of the wolves, dis- 
tinct and prolonged, even at the very door of the cabins, 
imparted to the stirring scenes of border life, an exciting 
feature. 

Wilkes Barre then furnished the nearest store from 
Stroudsburg or Easton, and every spring after tramping 
weeks in the Sap-woods, was the ox-journey hither 
undertaken, exchanging the maple sugar for tea and 
other essentials. 

For many years sweet fern was substituted for tea ; 
and browned rye and various herbs smoked upon the 
table in the place of cofi*ee. 

Pine knots or " candle-wood," as the Yankees termed 
it, threw on the little families the only light other than 
that furnished by Heaven. 



YANKEE WAY OP PULLING A TOOTH. 

Long before doctors armed with lancets and saddle- 
bags, went forth in the valley, empowered like the beast 
in the Kevelations, " to kill a fourth part," at least, of 
those they met, the duties of the physician necessarily fell 
upon the patient himself, or the odd skill of some good- 
natured neighbor, or perhaps were more often assumed 



■^'^ . LACKAWAKNA VALLEY. 

by some old, adipose, ignorant and meddlesome woman 
whose roots and '^ yarls,'' gathered from the mountain 
and meadow, had such wonderful '•' vartu;' that no dis- 
ease could resist. Tooth-ache, although then not often 
treated with the savage dignity of forceps or turn- 
keys, came in the young settlement, just as often, and 
like any unwelcome visitor, stayed just as long. Some- 
times, however, its court was summarily adjourned by 
methods having the merit of being original, cheap 
and quick. * ^ 

Among the settlers in Blakely, at the time spoken of 
was a long, lean, bony son of a former, troubled with 
that most provoking of all pains, or as Burns called 
It-," thou h— 11 o' a' diseases,"— the tooth-ache. 

The troublesome member was one of the wide 
pronged molars, as firm in its socket as if held in a 
vice. The pain was so acute as it ran alono- the in- 
flamed gums, that the usual series of manipulations 
with decoctions and "m^J-ments," alternated with useless 
swearing, failed to bring relief to the sufferer. As the 
ache grew keener with torture, a ''remejil'' ao-ent was 
suggested and tried. One end of a firm hemp string 
was fastened upon the rebellious member, while the 
other securely fixed around a bullet, purposely notched 
was placed in the barrel of an old flint-lock musket^ 
loaded with an extra charge of powder. When all was 
ready, the desperate operator caught hold of the gun 
and " let drive." Out flew the tooth from the bleed- 
ing jaw, and away bounded the musket several feet. 

After this new way of extracting teeth had thus been 
demonstrated by one so simple and unskilled in the 
dental science, it became at once the chosen and only 
mode practised here for many years. 



DUNMORE. 177 



DUNMOEE.* 

The purchase of land from the Indians, by the Dela- 
ware Connecticut Company, came within ten miles of the 
Susquehanna River, and included within its boundaries 
all of the upper and eastern portion of the Yankee 
Town of Providence, and extended to the Delaware. 
The dividing line ran between this point and a part of 
Providence. 

'No settlement was attempted here until 1783, when 
William Allswokth, struck up his camp-fire among 
the tall trees. Allsworth was a Yankee, who, living on 
the extreme border of the State of New York, was in- 
duced to leave and emigrate to "Nine Partners," in 
1782, a large tract of land lying on the west bank of the 
Hudson, above Catskill, belonging originally to nine 
persons. He was a shoemaker by trade, and, learning 
how scarce they were in Westmoreland, determined to 
migrate hither. 

Taking the old Connecticut road, which passed from 
Orange county to the Yankee possessions at Wyoming, 
lie reached this point in the forest just at the edge of 
evening, in May, 1783. Surrounded by the shadows of 
night, he lit his bright fires around his covered wagon, 
containing his family, to intimidate the horde of wild- 

* In 1835-6, there was travelling in the United States, an English 
nobleman named Sir Augustus Murray, who, meeting with the friends of 
the " Drinker Railroad" at Easton, in 1836, who were making every possi- 
ble efforts to mature their project, promised them that when he returned 
to Europe, the next month, he would raise 100,000 pounds sterhng, to 
begin the road. In honor of Mr. Murray, whose father was the Earl of 
DuNMORE, this name was given to this place by H. W. Drinker and W. 
Henry. 



178 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

cats and wolves swarmiDg in the chaparral toward the 
Roaring Brook, while the surrounding trees, fallen and 
rolled in a cabin shape, and covered with the limbs and 
poles, became tolerably comfortable. He had married 
in early life Miss Esther Pettibone, by whom he had — 
Asenath, who married Mr. Daniels for her first husband 

and Millard for her second. 
Rachael w^io married Deodat Smith,* of Lackawanna. 
Dorothy, " " Noah Stevens, of Blakely. 
John, " " Miss Polly Benedict. 

Huldah, " " Enock Holmes. 

The descendants of Mr. Allsworth filled many places 
of usefulness in the county, and many are still adorning 
the various walks of life. The cabin of Allsworth being 
the only one upon the road this side of Little Meadows, 
some seventeen miles toward the Paupack settlement, it 
naturally became a place of some note for emigrating 
parties to stop. The old cabin stood upon the ground 
where was burned last winter the hotel of Coolbaugh. 

As nothing but forest intervened from the " Lackawa " 
settlement to that at Capouse, the lairs and frequent 
visits of wild beasts proved dangerously troublesome to 
the settler. 

At one time a bear came to the cabin of Allsworth, 
just at the edge of evening, and jumping into the pen, 
seized the old sow in its bushy, brawny arms, and in 
spite of every efibrt of those daring to pursue, carried 
the noisy porker off" to the w^oods towards little Poaring 
Brook. The little pigs, frightened but safe, were left in 
the pen. For greater safety, the barn-yard, or the 
strong inclosure into which cattle and sheep were 

* " He gives to God." 



DUNMOEE. 179 

driven at niglit, was built contiguously to the rear of 
the cabin. At another time, during the absence 
of Allsworth, a large panther came to this yard in the 
afternoon in search of food. This animal is as partial to 
veal as a bear is to pork. A calf was in the pen at 
the time. On this the panther sprang, when Mrs. Alls- 
worth, hearing an unusual bleat, seized the huge tongs 
standing in the corner of the fire-place, and actually 
drove the yellow intruder away without its intended 
meal. The same night, however, the calf was killed by 
the panther, which, in return, was the same week 
secured in a bear-trap and slain. 

After a few years, Edward Lunnon, John Carey, and 
Charles Dalph, moved in this region and settled a short 
distance from Allsworth up the valley. John West also 
moved in the county, and commenced a small clearing 
in the present vicinity of that point now designated as 
" No. 6," in the spring of the year 1795. Four paths 
now diverging from Allsworth, two of which were fol- 
lowed by marked trees, led to the simple and the com- 
mon name where two roads crossed, of " The Corners." 
The old Cobb or Connecticut road passed through the 
Corners, and a faint path was cut from the log cabin of 
West up through this place into the Providence forest 
where Blakely now lies. James Brown settled at the 
Corners in 1799, and being one of the laziest men in the 
world, did little else than hunt his favorite buck, as 
the haunches of venison hanging in his cabin, and the 
deer-horns piled in one corner of the room, well attested. 
He rifled the original name of all its beauty when he 
imparted to the Corners the famous appellation of 
" Bucktown " — a name not yet entirely obsolete. For 
a period of twenty-two years, the " Tavern " of the 



180 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

widow Allsworth, and the house of Brown, were all that 
enlivened the lonely site of Bucktown. In 1836, this 
place was named Dunmore. 



THOMAS SMITH. 

Among other resolute pioneers who sought the shores 
of the Susquehanna in 1783, appears the name of 
Thomas Smith, grandsire of T. Smith, Esq., of Abington. 

On the east side of the river below Nanticoke, he laid 
the foundation for his future home. The great ice 
freshet of 1784, which bore down from the upper waters 
of the Susquehanna such vast masses of ice, overflowing 
the plains and destroying the property along the river, 
swept his farm of all its harvest product, leaving it with 
little else than its gullied soil. Hardly had his recu])er- 
ative energies again made cheerful his fireside, when 
the " pumpkin freshet," as it was called, from the count- 
less number of pumpkins it brought down the swollen 
river, again inundated its banks, sweeping away houses, 
barns, mills, fences, stacks of hay and grain, cattle, 
flocks of sheep and droves of swine, in the general de- 
struction, and spreading desolation where but yesterday 
autumn promised abundance. 

Smith, not stoic enough to receive the visits of such 
floods with indifi'erence, moved up in the "gore" 
(now Lackawanna Township) in 1786, " for," said the 
old gentleman, " I want to get above high-water mark." 

His son, Deodat, intermarried with the Allsworth 
family in Dunmore, from whom sprung a large family 
of childi-en. 



ELIAS SCOTT, THE HUNTEK. 181 



ELIAS SCOTT, THE HUNTER. 

During the summer of 1792, Daniel Scott, the father 
of Elias, emigrated to the Lackawanna Yalley and pur- 
chased from the State 400 acres of land, lying then 
in Providence. 

His son Elias was a perfect ISTimrod, but the rapid 
encroachments of civilized life have crowded the forest 
world from him, as much as the aggressions of the white 
man have driven and stripped the Indian from his 
ancient huntino^-crrounds. 

Perceiving him, one day last summer, standing in 
front of the Wyoming House, in Scranton, and in a 
mood apparently thoughtful and sorrowful, the writer 
asked him what was the matter ? 

" Matter ! matter !" he exclaimed, as he looked up 
with a sigh, and pointed his wilted bony hand and 
hickory cane towards the railroad depots, " see how the 
tarnal rascals have spiled the old' hunting-grounds, 
where I've killed many a bear and deer." 

Upon his left hand unmistakable evidence appears 
of an encounter with a huge bear many years ago, while 
hunting along Stafford Meadow Brook, a short distance 
to the south from the present village of Scranton. 

Being camped out at night, with his knapsack for a 
pillow, his knife, belt, and long heavy rifle for compan- 
ions, where the glare of his camp-fire startled the deer 
and the elk, as they browsed along the mountain side, 
or were chased by the gaunt wolf or more blood- 
thirsty panther through the forest, he met old bruin just 
as the day broke, while the brute was gathering the 
juicy berry for his morning lunch. His organs of diges- 



182 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

tion, liowever, did not relisli the tickling sensation of 
the bullet thrown from Scott's rifle, and he immediatelj 
approached the hunter with all the familiarity and 
warmth of an old friend, until he came frightfully close. 
Scott, declining his advances, retreated as rapidly as 
possible from the wounded and enraged brute, and by 
the frequent punches of his gun, now empty and broken, 
avoided the embrace of the bear. Walking backwards 
from the ensanguined animal, the heel of his boot caught 
in a treacherous root of a tree, and he fell to the ground. 
Before he could raise himself again, commenced the 
death-struggle. Bruin sprang on the hunter with such 
violence as to rupture an internal blood-vessel, and for a 
moment the copious flow of blood from his mouth 
threatened suffocation. Smarting with the wound of 
the bullet, the bear seized the left hand of Scott in his 
mouth, as it was uplifted to divert attention from his 
throat, while with his right arm he drew from his belt 
the well-tried trusty knife. This he plunged rej^eatedly 
into the bear, until, exhausted from the loss of blood, he 
fell dead on the mangled hunter. 

Hunters then lived a life of plenty, for game of all 
kinds was so abundant at that period, that in the course 
of one year's casual hunting, Scott killed one hun- 
dred and seventy-five deer, five bears, three wolves, and 
a panther, besides wild turkeys in great numbers. He 
has killed and dressed eleven deer in one day, three of 
them being slain at 07ie shot. 



EARLY HISTORY OF " DRINKEr's BEECH." 183 



NOW COVINGTON. 

As the dweller in wigwams turned his footsteps to- 
wards the setting sun, in search of other hunting grounds, 
where the deer, the moose, and the buffalo, had not been 
driven by the white conqueror, no region was left be- 
hind him more fitted for the chase, the war-dance, or 
hostile camp-fires, than that section of country lying 
between Stroudsburg and the Lackawanna, first known 
as Drinker's Beech — a name suggested by the quantity 
of beech trees growing upon the region owned by 
Drinker. 

'No attention of the white man had been directed here 
until the year of 1Y8T. At this time, and during the 
year of 1791, Henry Drinker, Jr., of Philadelphia, father 
of Henry W. and Richard Drinker, purchased from the 
State about 25,000 acres of unseated land, lying in a 
section of country now embraced by Wayne, Pike, and 
Luzerne counties. Nothing was done with these wild 
lands until 1792, when he hired John Delong, of 
Stroudsburg, and a few other persons, to mark or cut a 
road to them from at or near the twenty-one mile tree, 
on the north and south road, which was also called the 
Drinker road, from the fact that it was opened princi- 
pally at the expense of Henry Drinker the elder, who 
was an uncle of Henry Drinker, Jr., and was also a large 
landholder in the north of the State. 

The road cut by Delong extended in a westerly direc- 
tion, passed that romantic sheet of water. Lake Henry, 
crossed the present track of the Delaware, Lackawanna 
and Western Railroad, and thence, taking a southerly 



184: LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

course, terminated on a branch of the Lehigh, called 
Bell Meadow Brook, near the old Indian encampment 
upon the edge of this brook, mentioned before. 

After these pioneer choppers returned, as the road 
was not travelled, it grew so full of underbrush as to 
forbid passage to all but the woodsman or the wild-cat. 
In reopening this road from the lake to within a short 
distance of the north and south turnpike, in the fall of 
1821, the name of "Henry Drinker," with the date of 
1792, was found cut on a large beech tree. 

Until as late as 1813, the late Ebenezer Bowman, 
Esq., of Wilkes Barre, was the agent employed to pay 
the taxes upon these lands, when they were given in 
charge of Henry W. Drinker, who was instructed to 
offer them for sale and settlement. 

In the spring of tliis year, H. Drinker, Jr., with his 
sons, II. W. and Hichard Drinker, visited the village of 
Stoddartsville — a village which was built by the late 
John Stoddart, of Philadelphia, w^ho, being an alien 
when war was declared against Great Britain in 1811, 
was required to remove from the city, and owning 
several tracts of land along the waters of the Lehigh, 
one of which embraced the Great Fails, employed his 
time and capital in the creation of that retired settle- 
ment. 

As the southern portion of the Drinker lands lay on 
the Lehigh and its tributaries, about twelve miles north- 
east of Stoddartsville, it was decided to open a communi- 
cation to them from that place by a road nearly follow- 
ing the course of the river, if the same was found at all 
practicable. 

Previous, however, to running any line of road, H. 
W. Drinker determined to ascend that stream in a small 



EARLY HISTORY OF " DRINKEr's BEECH." 185 

canoe or skiff, up to the very mouth of Wild Meadow 
Brook— now called " Mill Creek." This the old hunt- 
ers and sturdy woodsmen declared impossible, as the 
stream in one place was completely closed by a com- 
pact body of drift-wood of very large size and great 
extent, on the top of which a considerable strata of vege- 
table and earthy matter had accumulated, and brush- 
wood was growing luxuriantly ; in other places there 
were swift and narrow rapids, beaver dams, and alder 
and laurel, twisted and interwoven over the very cur- 
rent in such a manner that it seemed as if no boat could 
ascend the Lehigh, unless carried upon shoulders the 
greater portion of the way, as the bark canoes of the 
Indians were sometimes taken. ISTotwithstanding these 
discouraging but genuine representations, by offering 
high wages, a resolute set of axemen were at length 
engaged to undertake this truly formidable task, and 
after the expenditure of no little energy and money, 
accompanied with some of the hardest swearing among 
the choppers, a boat channel to the desired point was 
opened in the course of two months. 

The first encampment of the Messrs. Drinkers, with 
their choppers, was near the mouth of Wild Meadow 
Brook, where they erected a bai'k cabin, or shed, open 
in front and at the sides, and sloping back to the ground. 
Each man was furnished with a blanket, in which he 
rolled himself up at night, and while a large crackling 
fire blazed in front of the cabin without, the soft hem- 
lock boughs within furnished invigorating repose after 
the fatiguing labors of the day. Now and then, they 
were annoyed by the serenade of a school of owls, at- 
tracted to the camp by the strange glare of the fire, or 
the piercing scream of the sleepless panther, watching 



186 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

the intruders : and in damp, rainy weather, by the visits 
of the grey-coated gnats," or " punks," as the woodsmen 
called them. Trout and venison were so abundant here, 
that an hour's fish or hunt, supplied the cabin for a 
week. 

This encampment was made in 1815, when this new 
avenue along the Lehigh was used for boating and 
freight. Provisions and lumber were taken up the 
stream from Stoddartsville, in a large batteau, drawn 
by a tough old mare, who was hitched to the bow with 
a plough harness, and with a setting pole to assist her 
when there was a tight pull, and occasionally to push her 
en deTriere^ when the speed was too slow to suit the 
i?<?(zr- Admiral, as the hands called the old man who 
owned the animal ; sometimes swimming through a deep 
beaver-dam, and at others scrambling along slippery, 
rocky, narrow passes and rapids, to the great astonish- 
ment of otters, minks, and muskrats, residing along the 
banks of the river, 

" And if a heaver lingered there, 
It must have made the rascal stare, 
To see the swimming of that mare." 

In June, July, Sept., and October of the year 1814, 
these lands were re-surveyed by Jason Torrey, Esq., of 
Bethany, Wayne county, under the direction of H. W. 
Drinker, into lots averaging one hundred acres each, 
and numbered from one to two hundred and thirty. 
These lots were sold at $5 per acre, on a five years' 
credit, and generally the first two years without interest ; 
payment being made in lumber, labor, stock and pro- 
duce, or in fact anything the farmer had to dispose of 

The first clearing was made in Drinker's settlement 



EARLY niSTORY OF " DRINKEr's BEECH." 187 

in tlie year 1815, by H. W. Drinker, on tlie ridge of 
land where he now resides ; he also built the first log- 
house, which was located about a quarter of a mile to 
the south of his present residence. 

Among the early settlers were Michael Mitchell, Law- 
rence Dershermer, Ebenezer Covey, John and William 
Ross, Jolm and George Sox, John and Lewis Stull, 

Samuel Wilohick, Archippus Childs, Lofrance, 

John Genthu, Henry Ospuck, John Fish, David Dale, 
Edward Wardell, John Wragg, Esq., Jolm Thompson, 
and Matthew Hodgson. 

During the year 1816, a road was run and opened 
from the Wilkes Barre and Easton Turnpike, at a point 
about half a mile above Stoddartville, to the north and 
south road, near the Wallenpaupack bridge, a distance 
of about thirty miles. This road is now called the old 
Drinker road. 

At the Court of Quarter Sessions, held at Wilkes 
Barre, in 1818, "Covington" was formed out of a part 
of Wilkes Barre Township, embracing the whole of the 
Drinker territory. The records tell us, "In honor of 
Brigadier-General Covington, who gallantly fell at the 
battle of Williamsburg, in Upper Canada, the court call 
this township Covington." 

H. W. Drinker being an intimate friend of General 
Covington, this name was given to the new township by 
his suggestion. 

The first turnpike approaching the Lackawanna from 
the east, was one originated by Drinker, the Philadel- 
phia and Great Bend Turnpike road, known now as the 
"Drinker Turnpike." This commenced at the Belmont 
and Easton road, about three miles above Stanhope, and 
ran thence a northerly course to the Susquehanna and 



188 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

Great Bend Turnpike, at a point near Ithamar, Mott's 
Tavern. The charter for this road was obtained in the 
year 1819, but the State only subscribed $12,000 to- 
wards constructing a continuous line of road of over 
sixty miles, most of which distance was literally through 
a ])athless forest, of the most forbidding, formidable 
cliaracter, for such an enterprise. 

The balance of the stock was taken by the Messrs. 
Drinkers, Meredith, Clymer, and other landholders. 
The road was principally located by Henry W. Drinker, 
who was elected President of the Company, and who 
superintended the general construction of the turnpike 
until its completion. 

The charter for this road remains unimpaired to this 
day, but whether the original stock will ever pay any 
dividends, must remain a problem for ^ovaQ future gener- 
ations to solve. 

Pleasant Yalley, lying ten miles east of Scranton 
on the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, 
is a basin-like vale, scooped out of the hills for the 
passage of the Roaring Brook in its descent to the 
Lackawanna, where the village of Dunning emerges 
from the beechwoods. West, about one mile, "Bar- 
ney's Ledge," a bold, long bulwark of vertical rock, 
rises up at the entrance to Cobb's Gap with savage out- 
line, and rudely bending one of its stony arms to the 
east, half encircles the village in its embrace. It lies 
on the old Drinker turnpike, while the light track of 
the gravity coal road of the Pennsylvania Coal Com- 
pany, witli its flat rail passes through it. Hunter's 
Range, a place once famous for its trout fishing, and poor 
whisky, lies in the vicinity. A large water-tank, and 
a simple platform, made from a dozen planks and less 



THE FRENCH CANADIAN. 189 

than a dozen posts, form the attractions of the raih'oad 
depot here. In 1856, a portion of the " Dunning pro- 
j)erty " was purchased by A. M. Maynard, for tannery 
purposes. It was soon after sold to Major E. P. Strong, 
and D. T. Peck, Esq., the present liberal and ener- 
getic owners. The tannery is 350 feet in length, 40 
feet wide, with an addition of 150 feet, and is capa- 
ble of converting 50,000 raw hides yearly into ready 
leather, worth over $200,000. The retreating hemlock 
forest stretching far back from the valley, is compelled 
to yield five thousand cord of bark per year, to furnish 
the huge vats with the gastric juice. The engine fur- 
nishing the necessary power for the bark-mill and the 
tannery, received the premium at the State Fair, held in 
Elmira, in 1855, and capable of grinding in this mill 
one cord of bark per minute ! Although there is no 
beauty here, there is a fresh business air about the vil- 
lage, with its lumbering interests, and leather trade, 
that must arrest the attention of the passer, and, after 
the scalping axe prepares the woods around it for agri- 
culture. Dunning will surpass many older towns along 
the line of the road. 

THE FKENCH CANADIAN. 

Among those becoming attached to the beech and 
maple wilderness skirting the Drinker settlement, some 
years ago, was an odd character, commonly called and 
known through all that wild region, by the name of 
" Old French Charley," but whose full cognomen was 
Charles Baptiste Ariel. 

In his youth he had lived with the ISTorthwestern 
Indians, and had been in the employ of the celebrated 
General Wayne, as an Indian runner, during that 



190 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

memorable war with those hostile tribes, whose mim- 
bers, in consequence of their repeated success against 
our frontier-men, were then so formidable ; and after 
being honorably discharged, was for many years after- 
wards a boatman on the rivers of Canada. He was 
skilled as a trout-fisher, and so familiar had he became 
with the habits of all the wild denizens of the forest, 
that his imitation of the cries of the animal or the bird 
would deceive the most practised ear. The large 
hooting owl {Bubo P ennsylvanius\ with his deceiving 
and altering voice, he would call to the very edge of 
the clearing, from a long distance, when he would salute 
his owlship with such a natural guffaw, and a rifle-shot 
by way of accompaniment, as to afford a hearty laugh 
from his fellow camp -mates. 

In the " Reminiscences of the Beech Woods," a sketch 
published in 1851, by Eichard Drinker, Esq., the Cana- 
dian, is thus spoken of.* 

" French Charley had not lived with me long before 
some of the hands complained that he frequently dis- 
turbed them in the night, by groaning and talking in 
his sleep, and sometimes would suddenly rise from his 
bed, and walk hurriedly to and fro, muttering something 
in an unknown tongue, in a low and dismal tone of 
voice. When spoken to, he would generally return 
quietly to his bed, but from that time till morning, con- 
tinued restless and uneasy. If asked what was the 
matter, his answer was uniformly "Oh, nothing, I 
suppose I was dreaming ;" nor would he say any more 
than this, when questioned the next day, except per- 
haps, to add, he was very sorry he had disturbed any- 

* Golumhia Democrat, 1851. 



THE FJRENCH CANADIAN. 191 

body. My attention being thus called to this strange 
conduct, I sought a private opportunity with the man, 
and requested as a particular favor that he would inform 
me what it was, that troubled him so much every night, 
adding that if it was anything I could alleviate in any 
way, I would cheerfully do so. This touched his feel- 
ings, and the result was the following narrative. 

'^ When quite a young man, the love of adventure 
and a fondness for hunting and trapping, led to an 
extensive and friendly acquaintance with the red-man 
of the forest, and to his finally being adoj)ted in the 
tribe of the Messasawgues Indians. According to the 
custom of this tribe, the chief gave to the white man, 
an Indian brother, with the information, that by their 
law the sm-vivor of them would inherit his brother's 
property. Charles, it appears, was the more successful 
trapper of the two, and in a short time after his joining 
the tribe, had sold peltry enough in the town of Detroit, 
to enable him to purchase a good rifle, and a handsome 
young horse, with saddle and bridle. 'Not long after this 
purchase, his Indian brother proposed to him to take a 
long hunting excursion on the Wabash, after wild tur- 
keys, which were then reported to be very abundant in 
that vicinity. Anxious to prove his new rifle, he at 
once consented to go, and having first obtained a reluc- 
tant permission from the chief, they accordingly set out. 
About the fifth day from their setting out, they suc- 
ceeded in killing a few turkeys, after a most fatiguing 
hunt, and the evening found them encamped near the 
banks of the Wabash, deep in the dark forest, and far 
from the haunts of men. Here, by a blazing, cheerful 
fire they cooked one of their turkeys, and having made 
a hearty supper, Indian-like, they sat in silence, gazing 



192 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

on the bright flames and sparks, as they ascended before 
them, until both apparently fell asleep ; and which 
really was the case with the Frenchman. 

^' He did not know how long he had slept, but his sleep 
was disturbed by a vexatious dream. He thought he 
had been engaged for a long time in calling up to him a 
fine old turkey cock, and when at last he succeeded 
in getting the noble bird within rifle shot, his new 
rifle, for the first time, missed fire. At this, the turkey 
gave his well-known cry of alarm, and stretching out 
his long neck, ran a short distance and again stood 
still, apparently waiting for some further intimation 
of danger, or to hear repeated the call that had lured 
him to the place. Upon examining the lock, the 
hunter found to his surprise, there was no flint in it, 
and as there was still a possibility of getting the bird, 
he cautiously took another flint from his bullet-pouch, 
and succeeded in fixing it ready for another shot, 
the game at this time still standing fair, about one 
hundred yards distant. He drew on a fine and steady 
sight, but again his rifle snapt, and so loudly this time 
that it awoke him up. The camp-flre had burnt down 
to a bed of coals, with the exception of a brand or two 
which occasionally sent up a flickering flame ; but lo ! 
his Indian brother was nowhere to be seen. He had 
scarcely been made aware of this fact, when, in the 
direction of the river, he distinctly heard the well-known 
click of a rifle. His dream then had not been all a dream. 
Yet his position was a most fearful one, as it was now 
evident to him, that either his own life or that of his 
Indian brother must be taken ; and that, too, in a very 
brief space of time. 

" He instantly threw oft' his blanket on the stump of a 



THE FRENCH CANADIAN. 193 

sapling, against wliicli he had been resting, and silently- 
crawling away from the lire, secured his own rifle, the 
flint, priming, and charge of which he carefully ex- 
amined, and finding all right, with the caution of an 
experienced hunter, moved stealthily towards the 
ambush of his treacherous brother. When within about 
ten yards of it, he heard him knocking the flint of his 
rifle, and a brand of fire at that moment fiashing up, 
suddenly discovered his precise position^ He was stoop- 
ing down over the lock, carefully picking the flint with 
his knife ; but soon appearing satisfied that it would 
make sufticient fire, he looked up towards the camp, 
and immediately discovering that the livmg marh had 
disappeared, his keen eye glanced eagoi-ly and wonder- 
ingly on every side, until at length it became fixed in a 
gaze of horror, on the barrel of the Frenchman's rifle, 
pointing over a log, directly at his breast. He saw at a 
moment his chance was gone, and throwing down his 
own rifle, fell upon his knees, and in the most piteous 
manner, commenced begging his white brother to for- 
give, and spare his life. But the stern answ^er to these 
entreaties was, ' I believe you have snapped three times 
at me, and if I snap as many tinses at you, you shall go 
clear.' A sharp report instantly followed this decla- 
ration, and the Indian with a wild, unearthly yell, 
sprang forward and fell to the ground, bleeding and hfe- 
less — a victim to his own trerxihery. He was shot 
through the heart. 

" The excitement was over, and the white man, in that 
dark and dreary hour, then fully realized how awful a 
deed it was to send a soul thus suddenly to its last 
account. But the body remained and must be disposed 
of, for he could not bear the idea of leaving it to be 

9 



194 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

mangled by the wild beasts ; and probably was also fear- 
ful that a search might be made by some of the tribe, 
before it could be destroyed. 

" This dread task he performed by tying it up in the 
blanket, together with the rifle, and all the hunting 
apparatus that had belonged to the deceased ; and then 
attaching a heavy stone to the neck, plunged hira into 
the "Wabash, whose dark waters closed over him, leav- 
ing to human sight no reliable trace of the deed, hence- 
forth forever. 

"Upon the Frenchman's return to the tribe, the chief 
asked where he had left his brother, and the reply being 
' On the Wabash, hunting turkeys ;' the intelligence was 
received 'with an Indian grunt on the part of the chief, 
and the brief remark, ' he was a bad man,' after which 
no other question was ever asked concerning him, either 
by the chief or any of the tribe. 

"The Indian was killed in self-defence, and according 
to the reasoning of the generality of the world, Charles 
was justified in thus taking his life — he said he then 
saw no other way to save his own life under the circum- 
stances in which he was placed — but he had hilled 
an unarmed man while pleading for mercy ^ and 
though he thus reasoned, it was evident his peace of 
mind was gone forever; for as he expressed it, he 
' always saw that poor Indian hegging for his Ufe^ and 
could scarcely ever sleep without being haunted with 
this dreaded apparition. 

" About eighteen months after Charles had left my 
service, he became entirely deranged, and though his 
insanity appeared to be of a perfectly harmless charac- 
ter, nobody, for a time, appeared willing to take charge 
of him. At length, hearing he was in a destitute state, 



A PIQUANT SKETCH. 195 

a benevolent family of my acquaintance took liim to 
their home, bringing him from a distance of fifteen 
miles over rough roads in their own conveyance. Had 
it not been for this kind act, he would no doubt have 
suffered severely, if not perished, during an inclement 
winter. 

"Fed and tenderly cared for by them, he became 
uneasy upon the approach of mild weather, sa^dng 
repeatedly that he must go to Canada to see his 
relatives. 

" At length, seizing an opportunity when there was no 
one to control his movements, he started suddenly 
away, and as nothing was heard of him for some weeks, 
we supposed he had probably reached a long distance 
on his journey, as he was a remarkable rapid traveller; 
but on inquiry, learned that he had gone no farther than 
Wilkes Barre, where he was found dead under a bridge 
across Bear Creek. The water in which he was found 
was not more than knee-deep, and he had probably 
fallen off the bridge in the darkness of the night." 



THE SQUIRE OF THE 

Connected so intimately with the early history of 
Drinker's Beech, as seems the following piquant sketch, 
written some years ago, by Eichard Drinker, Esq., its 
insertion seems here appropriate. 

"The architect who built my log-house was a strange 
animal, with a conscience said to have been somewhat 
of the india-rubber quality, being one of that kind of 
men who entertain the opinion that the world owes 
them a living, and they therefore will liave it. He was 



196 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

a tall, gaunt Yankee, with an eye like a fish-hawk, and 
a nose not very unlike the bill of that bird of prey. 
The middle of his upper lip was also singularly pointed, 
so that he was decidedly what might be called a very 
sharp-featured man. 

'^ He had emigrated from Connecticut in his youth to 
Canada, and while there, had taken the oath of alle- 
giance to the British Government ; though for what 
consideration he never would condescend to explain, 
but being of that restless disposition peculiar to most 
of our eastern men, he soon got tired of what he termed 
the ' darn'd humbug Britishers and jabbering French 
folks,' and returned to Uncle Sam's dominions, not long 
after the close of the war of 1812, when hearing of a 
new settlement in the South Beech Woods of Pennsyl- 
vania, where land could be bought cheap, and on long 
credit, he straightway shouldered his axe, and with 
but little coin in his purse, started for that promised 
region. 

" He was one of the first who made a clearing in the 
upper part of the settlement, and was suited exactly, 
for he selected a fifty-acre lot, which he bought on a 
five years' credit, cleared about twenty acres of it, put 
up a log-house and barn, and before the expiration of 
the five years sold his ' Betterments ' for nearly as much 
as he was to have paid for the lot, besides picking up in 
that time, a good many dollars by chopping and assist- 
ing to build for other settlers. His lot was about half a 
mile from my clearing, and during the progress of his 
improvements he would occasionally come over to see 
how we were getting on^ as well as to ascertain now 
and then how we were off for flour, meat, molasses, etc., 
when he was out of any of these articles. 



A PIQUANT SKETCH. 



197 



''Just about that time, several Yorkshire families 
moved into the Eeech, which were a different spe- 
cies of Jolm Bulls from any Yankee John had ever 
seen, and appeared to amuse him amazingly. One of 
them had purchased a lot a short distance beyond his, 
for which he had paid the money down, and received 
his deed. This payment had made so great an inroad 
into his purse, that he thought he could not afford to 
pay our Yankee axenum $5 00 an acre for chopping ; 
so, after his house was built, he and his stout wife, with 
their broad-bitted English axes, commenced very indus- 
triously to chop the trees immediately around it. This 
was great sport for Deacon Furgeson, as we called him, 
and he described their operations with a glee bordering 
upon the savage order— he said ' they went pecking 
around the trees like the big red-headed wood-pecker, 
so that no man on earth could tell which way a tree 
would fall, the "kearf " being the same on all sides, and 
he shouldn't wonder if tlie darn'd old fools were to 
smash in their house, and both get killed besides, as 
they deserved to be for their obstinacy.' In this way, 
however, they succeeded in falling several large trees, 
though, as the 'Deacon' truly enough had said, evi- 
dently at the risk of their dwellings. But fortunately 
after a few days' trial, they had wit enough to perceive 
that their way of clearing up a farm was neither the 
most expeditious, the safest, nor the most economical ; 
so they gave it up, and concluded it best to employ one 
of our iirst-rate choppers, who could cut down and chop 
up more trees in one week, than they could possibly 
have accomplished with the utmost industry in three 
months. They also employed our countryman to burn 
and log off the first five acres, and to sow and drag in 



198 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

their first crops of grain for tliein, after whicli they, 
with their two sons, were gradually 'broken in to the 
ways of the country, and lived to see quite a snug farm, 
the result, princiijally, of their own industry, where they 
had once seen nothing but a forest of enormous trees. 

" It was a long time, however, before they could get 
accustomed to, or satisfied with the custom of hrousing 
stock in the forest — they were continually losing their 
cows, and ' Toadman,' as his wife called him, often got 
lost himself, in hunting up in turn, and ' deary me V she 
' was sadly afraid something would catch him.' 

" I remember once finding him in this bewildered 
state, though he was not far from his own house at the 
time : he said ' he thought he could not be far from 
the backside of the deacon's house, but had missed 
the road at some gate^ adding, I'se sure I don't know 
where I is, but thee maun tack me home to my misses !' 
which I accordingly did in a brief space of time, 
receiving for this slight service, far more thanks than 
were at all necessary, coupled w^itli many expressions 
of astonishment at its quick performance. 

" The deacon was highly diverted ' at their odd ways 
of talking,' observing, with a broad grin, ' that he never 
heered such darn'd queer folks to talk in all his life. 
Why,' said he, ' what do you think ? — they call a keow 
a coo P At this we all burst into a roar of laughter, in 
which he most heartily joined, little dreaming that his 
keow had any share in producing it : one of his auditors, 
who was fond of fun, and thought this joke too good to 
be lost, has recorded it in the following style : 

" ' What tarnel queei' folks all these Yorkshire men be, 
Said a true Yankee doodle, with sniggering grin, 
Such odd ways of talking, by ginger ! beats me — 



( A PIQUANT SKETCH. 199 

To find out their talk a man scarce can begin. 
One ask'd me if I'd a strange coo lately seen, 

Along at rod side he had loused her sin morn ; 
Od darn ye, says I, what thing do you mean ? 

Can't you talk better Eughsh, since English you're bom ? 
Well, by scissors ! 'twas more than five minutes, I veow, 
Before I could guess that a coo meant a Jceow.^ 

" The lot on which the deacon made his clearing has 
since been occupied by several owners, and is now a 
pretty good farm, with a handsome farmhouse and 
convenient out-buildings upon it, and is at present 
owned by an enterprising descend act of one of the 
early Yorkshire settlers, who was a worthy and just 
man, and an honor to the country. This clearing, and 
a mile of road, the deacon cut from my farm to the 
main road, running through the settlement, and for 
which I paid him ten dollars, are the only monuments 
within my knowledge now remaining of that worthy's 
doings in that region of country. My log-house, with 
all its elegant appendages, haviug long since been 
utterly destroyed, and its strange architect departed to 
parts unknown; possibly again to Canada among the 
Britishers and Frenchmen. 

" In a year or two after the advent of the first York- 
shire families, several other English emigrants came 
into the settlement, purchasing such lots as they 
thought best adapted for farming purposes. Among 
these was a family from Cumberland, the male head of 
which was about as conceited a John Bull of the clod- 
hopping genus, as any you commonly meet with on 
this side the water ; according to his account, he knew 
everything and a little 'niore^ and at his first onslaught 
with his long red rag, informed us that he intended to 
learn our Yankees how to farm, as he had not yet seen 



200 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

anything that looked like farming since he came to 
America. With this laudable object in view, he pur- 
chased on the usual credit of five years, a ridge of land 
covered with sapling timber, and with the aid of his 
two sons and a son-in-law, managed to chop down and 
clear ofi" some six or eight acres, and the season being 
favorable, he had an excellent 'hum}'' on this he 
sowed wheat, which came up that fall very rank ; and 
in the following summer many were astonished at the 
length of the stalks and heads, the latter of which w^ere 
generally five and six inches long. This made our Cum- 
berland man brag more than ever — he said, ' it was 
jest such wheat as he used to raise in ould England, 
and he'd warrant no Yankee had ever seen such a crop 
before;' but a more cunning old brother Jonathan 
admonished him not to boast too loud till he saw how 
it filled^ as he ' hinder thought it would turn out to be 
a darn'd big crop of s^raw ' — which, indeed, proved to 
be the case, for when it should have filled there was not 
a single kernel of grain to be found in the whole field ! 
This took the conceit out of the grower to such an 
extent that he shortly after sold out his improvement to 
a Scotchman, frae near the borders of the Highlands, 
and moved away from the Beech with as little cere- 
mony as possible, muttering curses against the place, as 
a very poor one for a rale English farmer to live in. 

" The cannie Scot pursued a diff'erent course in his 
agricultural operations : he took advice, and learning 
that the oat crop was the most profitable one that could 
be raised here (oats then were worth fifty cents per 
bushel), made this his main crop ; and as he seeded it 
down with clover and timothy, he soon commenced 
raising stock, and being withal very economical in his 



A PIQUANT SKETCH. 201 

habits and living, soon paid for a lot of over one hun- 
dred acres. 

'' But, prospering thus, his exit from the Beech was 
quite as sudden as that of his English predecessor. 

" His son George had a disposition so excitable and 
belligerent, that whenever he had ' in his cheek a 
Highland gill ' he became peculiarly offensive. IS^ow 
it happened at the raising of a large frame barn, to 
which George was invited, that the whisky, as was 
usual at that day, passed around freely, making those 
who freely partook of it foolish or fighting, according 
to their several temperaments. Among these was a 
burly, good-natured Yankee, full of fun and mischief, 
and who could truly have said with Lord Nelson, that 
*he never saw fear' — as the liquor began to operate 
on his system, so did his propensities begin most con- 
spicuously to exhibit themselves, annoying some, and 
diverting a great majority of the company, as was 
evident from the frequent peals of laughter that now 
and then were heard among them. 

'' At length ihQ fortissimo^ broad Scotch of the High- 
lander, coupled with the pompous manner of relating 
the feats he had performed in his ain country, attracted 
the attention of our Yankee, who being something of a 
mimic, after listening awhile, straightway commenced 
relating to a group he had gathered around him, in the 
same style {only more so)^ the feats he had performed in 
the highlands of the Beech woods. 

" This was too much for Scotch blood, now inflamed by 
rather more than a ' Highland gill ' to endure, and it 
produced a torrent of abuse from the Scot, ending with 
the declaration that he could 'whip onie mou in 
America, and particularly the Yankee, if he dared then 



202 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

and there to stand before him.' To this the Yankee 
replied that, although he did not feel vexed enough to 
make much of a fight, yet as he had made it a point 
never to refuse a chance of any kind for a trial of 
strength, he rather guessed he should not do so on the 
present occasion, especially as the honor of his country 
called him to the field; and suiting the action to the 
word, he quickly placed himself in front of the incensed 
Scot, who, without hesitation, dealt him a blow, severe 
enough to have knocked any ordinary man down. But 

Joe B was not an ordinary man, as George soon 

found out to his cost, for although the latter was both 
athletic and active, before he could repeat his blow, 
Joe sprang upon him with the quickness of a wild-cat, 
and in an instant both were on tlie ground. Joe above 
and ' the Gael below,' according to the laws of ' rough 
and tumble,' which then governed all the fights in this 
region ; when a man w^as down, he was by no means to 
be let up except by the power that put him down. The 
only chance, therefore, left for George was to turn his 
antagonist, which, after a series of desperate struggles 
and kicks, he found was impossible to do. During the 
struggle Joe neither bit nor gouged, but contented him- 
self with dousing his bullet head repeatedly into the 
Scotchman's face and hread-hashet, which operation 
ceased as soon as no further resistance was offered, and 
the latter was then let up, on the express stipulation 
that he would be peaceable and bear no malice, which 
was agreed to, although it was evident to the by- 
standers that his wrath was more smothered than sub- 
dued. They saw a lurking devil in his eye, that plainly 
said, bew^are ! 

" On rising from the ground he went immediately 



A PIQUANT SKETCH. 203 

into the house, and sat sulkily down by himself, where 
he remained until the building was raised, and the men 
ready to go home. He then came out, and joining his 
late foeman, who was in the rear of the company, on 
their homeward march, walked along silently and 
peaceably by his side for about one hundred and fifty 
yards, when he suddenly drew his right hand from his 
coat pocket, holding an open dirk-knife, and struck at 
the breast of his companion with great force. 

" Had the blow taken full efi'ect, there is little doubt 
he would have killed him on the spot ; but Joe hav- 
ing strong suspicions that his intentions were any- 
thing but friendly, had been on the watch from the 
start, and by instantly interposing his brawny arm, 
warded off the deadly aim — his guard, however, hap- 
pened to strike the Scotchman's arm too near the elbow, 
the knife, in its upward course, struck poor Joe's nose, 
splitting it completely open the whole length, and mak- 
ing him of course a very gory looking object. As soon 
as the blow was struck the Scot, who was swift of foot, 
set off at the top of his speed, taking ' the longest kind 
of steps' towards the house, followed by the whole 
company screaming 'Stop the murderer!' 'Kill the 

d d rascal !' etc. Stones of all throwable sizes were 

hurled after him with desperate rapidity, but his High- 
land legs saved him, and he got into the house 
unharmed, before there was any chance to close the 
door against him. The master of the cabin, hearing 
the appalling sounds of the chase, determined on the 
instant to prevent, if possible, at least on his premises, 
the execution of Lynch law, and in accordance with this 
resolution, placed himself in the door-way, armed with 
a club, and in that unmistakable tone of voice which 



204 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

marks determination of purpose, told the excited pur- 
suers that the only way by which they could pass into 
the house would be over his dead body ; but assuring 
them at the same time, that the murderer should be 
properly secured, and taken before a magistrate on the 
following morning. This, at length, pacified them, and 
after seeing George put into the custody of several stout 
keepers for the night, they all retired to their respec- 
tive homes. 

"The wounded man, in the meantime, had his wound 
properly attended to by a skillful hand, and before part- 
ing, informed the crowd with rather more than his usual 
nasal twang, that he ' guessed his smeller warn't spoiled 
too bad to show itself next morning before Squire Sox.' 
The residence of the squire was just fifteen miles from 
the scene of action, he being at that time the nearest 
magistrate, and in fact, the only one within a range 
of between thirty or forty miles. He was, in his ma- 
gisterial capacity, as ^ ell as in many other respects, 
most emphatically sui generis^ and all those who re- 
member him, must testify that a ^i^^^r<?y' specimen of the 
genus homo was never before commissioned by any 
Governor of Pennsylvania. His appointment was made 
on the recommendatio 1 of two intelligent citizens, 
chiefly on the ground of his honesty and peaceable dis- 
position, and not for the possession of legal qualifications, 
or book learning of any sort. Indeed it was observed 
at the time by a shrewd old gentleman, that the more 
law he read the less he would know — a prediction amply 
verified throughout the whole course of his adminis- 
tration. He, however, made a very good justice, be- 
cause he uniformly discouraged his neighbors from any- 
thing to do with lawsuits ; in fact, it was diflicult to get 



A PIQUANT SKETCH. 205 

the old man to issue process of any kind, eitlier in civil 
or criminal cases, his usual course being, to inform the 
applicants, that if thev were not such cussed fools, they 
could settle their disputes without going to law ; so he 
who songht a writ often went home without it. 

"Such was the squire before whom the prisoner was 
brought, on the day after the fight. Joe, and a number 
of witnesses and idlers appeared. 

" On hearing the case, the attempt to commit murder 
was so clearly proved, that every one present expected 
to see the prisoner sent forthwith to the county jail, 
there to await his trial for the offence at the next Court 
of Quarter Sessions, but the squire, after gravely con- 
sidering the case, informed them, that althongli it was a 
d — d bad scrape, he would recommend the parties to 
settle it amicably^ and thus save themselves and the 
county a ' most cussed bill of expense, and their neigh- 
bors a devilish sight of trouble ;' and that if they v/ould 
do so, he would charge them nothing for his time and 
trouble. 

" Strange as it may seem, this proposition was immedi- 
ately acted on, and upon the Scotchman's paying $20 for 
the damaged organ, and the witnesses and keepers for 
their time and trouble, ' Joe agreed to drop the prose- 
cution, and the parties were dismissed with a parting 
admonition from the squire ' not to make such d — d 
fools of themselves again.' 

" The President Judge of the district, upon hearing of 
this curious disposition of the case, said it was too out- 
rageous to be overlooked, and gave it as his decided 
opinion, that the justice ought to be deprived of his 
office, if not indicted at the next quarter sessions, and 
the Scotchman to be taken immediately with a State's 



206 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

warrant; all of which coming to the ears of the old 
forester, he sent word to the judge that 'he might go 
to the devil with his opinion., which in his own estima- 
tion, was not wortli a d — d fundicm P though what he 
meant bv this expression nobody ever exactly knew. 
No proceedings however were had against him, as it 
was generally known that he never intentionally did 
wrong in any of his official acts, but on the contrary, 
ever sought in his uncouth and seemingly profane man- 
ner to do that which was right, and had a tendency 
to promote peace and good-feeling among his fellow- 
men. His habit of swearing, by the by, although cer- 
tainly a bad one, and which, I am sorry to record, lasted 
as long as I knew him, some thirty odd years, could not 
with propriety be called a profane one. He merely 
used it to embellish his discourse, thinking, no doubt, it 
gave peculiar force, if not beauty to his diction, as he 
was particular to give due emphasis to any expletive. 

" The old Scotchman, either fearing his son might be 
taken with a warrant from headquarters, or that some 
blood-thirsty American highlander would put a bullet 
through his ' harns^ * (though in truth there was no 
danger of either event) secretly sold his improvement 
right to an old hunter and shingle-maker, for a mere 
trifle, and the panic being strong on him, moved out of 
the country, in a very short time after the hearing be- 
fore Squire Sox, informing no one of his destination ; 
but it was supposed that he did not stop short of the far 
"West, as we never could find out his whereabouts after- 
wards.'' 

* Brains. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF ABINGTON. 207 



THE SETTLEMENT OF ABINGTON. 

Of that hilly, productive portion of Luzerne county, 
lying between the Susquehanna Eiver and the Lacka- 
wanna, designated as Abington, little else was known 
to the white man, than that it was a trackless forest, in- 
habited only by beasts of prey, whose cries or bounds 
gave the only signs of life along the gummy pines, until 
as late as 1Y90. 

At this time a party of trappers, consisting of three 
persons, had penetrated the wilderness here as far as 
w^here is now spread out the fine sloping farm of the late 
Elder Miller, with the view of settling here, as trapping 
grew dull, and furs scarce. Here they fell the smaller 
underbrush and a few of the forest trees, which were 
rolled up into a cabin, roofed with bark and boughs, 
w^iile the crevices were so liberally seamed with 
wedges of wood and mud, as to impart to the simple 
structure a Hottentot appearance. 

Their knapsacks of provisions becoming empty, and 
bear-meat losing its oily relish, they shouldered their 
guns and traps before the close of summer, and aban- 
doned the enterprise, so that no real settlement was 
made here until 1794. The old, and in part vacated 
Drinker road, leading from the Lackawanna to Abing- 
ton, in passing through the curved and rocky gorge in 
the Moosic range opposite Cobb's, known as " Leggett's 
Gap," ran along the warrior's path the greater part of 
the distance, as it led from the Lidian village of Capouse, 
to Oquago, ^NTew York. 

In the spring of this year, Stephen Parker, Thomas 
Smith, Dea. Clark and Ebenezer Leach, father of E. 



208 LACKAWANNA VALLEr. 

Leach, Esq., of Providence, slung across their slioulders 
their packs and guns, and with axe in hand first 
widened this ancient pathway through the mountain 
wall, a notch so important to this township, as it is the 
only one aifording an eastern outlet to its generally in- 
dustrious inhabitants. Before this work had proceeded 
far, it was found that no wagon or cart could be taken 
through this gap with safety, on account of the huge 
hemlock trees closing up the passage, and the steep 
banks of the creek which rise up into the mountain, so 
that the more southern gap contiguous to Leggett's was 
selected for a wagon road, although it was consider- 
ably higher. The fii'st emigrating party coming into 
Abington took this now untrodden route. The next 
year this mountainous road was abandoned, and one 
built through Leggett's Gap. There are now but few 
traces found of this old road over or through the 
southern pass. 

ISTear the location of the present grist-mill of Hum- 
phreys, the white man's clearing first emerged from the 
Abington woods. This was made by Leach, who after- 
wards sold out his right at this point, and moved down 
in the vicinity of Leggett's Gap, where he soon became 
a tenant of a small, low, log cabin, remarkable only for 
its rude simplicity. A clearing was niched out upon the 
slope of a hill, where the corn soon sprouted from the 
fresh burned fallow, and the pumj)kins, with their yel- 
low sides and rounded faces, threw a Yankee and do- 
mestic look over a region naturally rugged and lonely. 

Corn once raised and husked, was either cracked in 
stone or wooden mortars, for the browm mush, or carried 
in backloads down to the corn-mill in Slocum Hollow, 
to be ground. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF ABINGTON. 209 

At this time, the solitude of Leggett's Gap, inter- 
rupted only by the scream of the panther or the wolf, 
as they sprang along its sides with prodigious leaps, 
made even the trip to the mill, during some seasons of 
the year, perilous indeed. " Many a time," said Leach, 
" have I passed through the notch, with my little grist on 
my shoulder, holding in my hand a large club which I 
kept swinging fiercely, to keep away the wolves, growl- 
ing around me, and to my faithful club, often bitten and 
broken when I reached home, have I apparently been 
indebted for my life." At length he hit upon a plan, 
promising exemption from their attacks. 

Being told that they were afraid of the sound of iron, 
lie obtained from the valley below, a saw-mill saw. To 
this he attached a strong withe, by which he drew the 
saw by one hand over a trail or road, as yet unconscious 
of the dignity of a sled or a wheel, making a tinkling 
alternately so sharp and soft as it bounded over a 
stone or plunged into a root, as to inspire them at once 
with fear so great, that this passage was only inter- 
rupted after this by their disappointed growls. 

During one of his mill trips to the Capouse, a timid 
fawn, being pursued closly by two wolves, ran up to 
him, and placed its head between the legs of Leach to 
seek protection from its half-starved pursuers. This 
was done in a manner so abrupt and hurried, as to first 
convey to the rider a knowledge of the chase. The 
wolves came up with a bound, w^ithin a short distance 
of where the fearless arm interposed for the trembling 
animal, and, giving one ferocious view of their white, 
sharpened teeth, crouched away to the fastness of their 
retreats. 

So frightened had the fawn become, that not until the 



210 LACKAWANNA VALLF.Y. 

path opened distinctly upon the clearing of Leach, 
could it be induced to leave the side of its protector. 

Deer and elk, at that period, thronged along the 
mountains in such numbers that droves often could be 
seen browsing upon the budding saplings, or lazily 
basking in the noonday sun. 

The Moose, from which the mountain range bordering 
the Lackawanna, — the Moosio — derived its name, were 
found here in great abundance. The farm of Leach 
subsequently embraced the Indian salt spring, men- 
tioned before. 

Parker and Smith made a purchase of land consider- 
ably north of this, while Clark chose a location where 
now stands Clark's Green. 

On the summit of the hill, commanding such a sweep 
of mountain, meadow, lowland, and ravine, as stretches 
out before the beholder as the .eye is turned to the 
south, there then stood the hemlock and the arrowy 
pine, interspersed with the maple and the beech, where 
was erected the family mansion of Deacon Clark. 

It was a substantial compact of round logs, notched 
deep at either end, and placed together evidently with 
more regard to time than timber. The slivery floor 
came from ash plank, which had never felt the tooth of 
a saw, or the bit of a plane, the axe alone, being respon- 
sible for smoothness and finish. It was a comfortable, 
unpretending dwelling, built here in the wood-side, 
some 1,300 feet above tide-water ; but, energetic, con- 
tented and industrious, the old man passed under its 
humble roof many a pleasant hour during the long 
evenings of autumn, when the hearth glowed with the 
crackling fire, while his days were engaged in giving 
culture and shape to one of the finest farms in Abington. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF ABINGTON. 211 

George Gardner, father of Horace, A. Sweet Gard- 
ner, and half a dozen others, marked out his narrow 
clearing here about this time. Job Tripp and Mr. Wall 
also settled in the new region the same year. Job set- 
tled in the western portion of Abington while it pos- 
sessed all its native ruggedness. Most of those who had 
plunged here in this old forest, were, like those who had 
commenced along the Lackawanna, so poor as to be 
unable to pay for their land, until from the soil, they 
could, by their honest industry and frugal management, 
raise the necessary means. Not so, however, with Job ; 
he had a little money and was determined to make the 
most of it. He purchased a grindstone and brought it 
into Abington, which for six years was the only one 
here. This he fenced in with stout saplings, allowing 
no one to grind upon it unless they paid him a stipu- 
lated sum, and turned the stone themselves. This enter- 
prise, although it was comprehensive in its design, and 
brought to his barricaded grindstone one or two dull 
axes a week of the toiling chopper, could not bring into 
play all the energies of his mind, so he fenced in much 
of the woods by falling trees, for a deer-pen ov park,' 
into which, after the deer had wandered for his morning 
browse, or had been driven by Job, the passage to the 
pen was closed, when the deer was to be slain, and dried 
venison. and buck-skin were to eifect such a revolution 
in the commercial aspect of Abington, and he was to be 
the Midas who had brought it. The chase over the 
acres he had thus fenced, proved more invigorating to 
his stomach than beneficial to his pocket, and the project 
of the old man died with him a few years later, marked 
only by the remaining debris of the fence yet seen 
around " Hickory Kidge." 



212 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

The only colored feature in the picture of Abington, 
is a colony of negroes living here, who, with all the 
boasted advantage of farming and freedom, possess all 
the abandoned, lazy habits of the race, and who hardly 
draw from the frosty hills around them as plenty a sus- 
tenance as that enjoyed by their brethren at the South. 

The original inhabitants of this township were from 
Connecticut and Rhode Island, and even now, the stern 
morality, the honest industry, and the social virtues lite- 
rally impressed upon the very hills of the parent State, 
are distinguished among their descendants here. Al- 
though no evidence of coal or iron is exhibited within 
the limits of Abington, it furnishes one of the hest farm- 
ing and grazing regions found in the county of Luzerne. 

This township is fifty-one years of age. At the 
Court of Quarter Sessions, held at Wilkes Barre in 
August, 1806, Abington was formed from a part of 
Tunkhannock, " Beginning at the southwest corner of 
Nicholson township, thence south nine and three-quar- 
ter miles east to Wayne county, thence by Wayne 
county line north nine and three quarter miles," etc. 



THE VALLEY HALF A CENTURY AGO. 

A brief, but faithful retrospective view of the Lacka- 
wanna Valley as it appeared to the observer in 1804, 
while it was yet shut in from the world, almost as much 
as the Icelander among his glacial peaks, will yet have 
a lingering interest. 

To Elder Miller, of Abington — a man alike eminent 
for his long, trusty services as a minister, and his vir- 
tues as a man — are we indebted for the accuracy of the 



THE VALLEY HALF A CENTURY AGO. 213 

view presented below. Emigrating to the valley, and 
settling in Abington in 1802, identified so intimately 
with all its local and passing events, he gave color and 
character to society around him, as much as the brook 
crossing the meadow marks it with a deeper shade and 
more luxuriant herbage. 

The great influence he exerted over the citizens of the 
tow^nship for the last half century, in keeping alive the 
spirit of improvement, husbandry, and morality, can be 
observed along the farms of his neighbors, in the enter- 
prise, the intelligence, the industry, the customs, and 
habits of the people around him. 

Elder John Miller* was born February 3, 1775, in 
Windham, Connecticut. When twenty-nine years of 
age, he emigrated to Abington, where he has seen, he 
has felt, he has known, and struggled long with the 
world, until his characteristic desire to do good, his 
benevolence of heart, and his grave, but kind deport- 
ment, have given him a position in the affections of the 
community attained by few. 

Until the Elder settled here, Ebenezer Leach, Dea. 
Clark, Widow Hall and son, John Lewis, Thomas 
Smith, and Stephen Parker, comprised all the inhabi- 
tants of this lonely township. 

Pie settled upon the little clearing made by the trap- 
pers in 1790, purchasing 326 acres of land, for which 
he paid the sum of $40— $20 in money, $10 in the 
popular currency of the day — maple sugar — and $10 in 
tin-ware. 

The only store then known in the county of Luzerne 
was kept in Wilkes Barre, by Hollenback and Fisher, 

* Died February 19, 1857, aged eighty-two years. 



214: LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

and this was more scantily supplied than the ordinary 
pack of the modem peddler. Here, Elder Miller was 
famished with the necessary tin, which he himself 
manufactured into ware of the desired size and shape. 

Fifty-five years ago in June, he commenced to preach 
and " turn many to righteousness." During this time 
he married 912 couple, baptized (immersed) 2,000 per- 
sons, and preached the enormous number of 1,800 fune- 
ral sermons belore he was called to receive his reward. 

For a period of twelve years, wdien the borders of the 
larger streams were only settled sparsely, did he offi- 
ciate in the Lackawanna Valley as the only Baptist, or 
clergyman of any denomination. 

Being a practical surveyor, there are few farms in the 
northern portion of Luzerne county he has not tra- 
versed, while defining their proper boundaries. The 
wife of Elder Miller w^as the fifth white woman living 
in Abington. 

While the Elder has passed away, he left behind him 
in manuscripts events of his life, and incidents in the 
early history and growth of Abington, whose publica- 
tion could not fail to interest all who knew him, and 
recall to the mind of the reader the grey head and 
kindly greetings of a man, whose age, whose calm, de- 
liberate air, whose venerable and unquestioned piety, 
and whose great sympathy in the hour of sorrow, made 
him one of the most remarkable persons ever living in 
Abington. 

BENNETT A BLACKSMITH. 

But, to return to the proposed retrospect of the valley. 
The first house standing near the confluence of the 



THE VALLEY HALF A CENTURY AGO. 215 

Lackawanna with tlie Susquehanna, at this period (1 804)^ 
was that of Ishmael Bennett, a blacksmith. He was a 
great Indian fighter and hater, having witnessed many 
of the cruelties practised by them after the battle across 
the river. A huge elm tree, seen a little east of the 
railroad d<^p6t at Pittston, indicates the original location 
of his dwelling. On the farm, now known as Barnum's, 
a little pretension in the potash and agricultural line 
was made by James Brown. Capt. Isaac Wilson, who 
married a daughter of John Phillips, owned a narrow 
patch of land immediately above. Just as the road, 
skirting along the western border of the Lackawanna, 
below Old Forge, emerges from the strip of wood, into 
the sandy plain, stood the residence of that old sun- 
burnt veteran, Ebenezer Marcy. In 1TT8, he was en- 
gaged in the Indian battle, and his wife was among the 
fugitives who fled from Wyoming on the evening of the 
memorable 3d of July of this year. The tourist, as he 
passes down the valley, cannot fail to observe, as he 
passes over the Lackawanna bridge below the rapids, a 
deep, ragged, narrow passage cut through a rock, that 
here turns aside the waters of the stream as they come 
fretting and chafing over the rocky bed, like an ill- 
curbed colt. This channel, dug out as early as 17T4 for 
mill purposes, now conveyed to the forge below motive 
power from the stream above. At this forge — standing 
a little below the bridge spoken of — Dr. Wm. Hooker 
Smith and James Sutton lived and manufactured iron. 
Opposite this point lay the farm since known as Drake's, 
on which a cabin had been fashioned by Hermans, who 
claimed the land, while on the adjoining clearing 
there lived Deodat Smith, father of Thos. Smith, Esq., 
of Abington. 



216 LACKAWANNA VALLF.Y. 

At Key's Creek ^ there resided an old man, named 
Cornelius Atlierton, a blacksmith by trade; he is said 
to have been the first man who made clothier'' s shears 
in the United States. This was in one of the eastern 
States. His son Jabez was shot in the Indian battle in 
the Wyoming Yalley ; the bullet passing through the 
femur^ or thigh bone, without a fracture. The Indians 
shot many of the settlers in the same way, so as to 
secure them for torture. At this creek there was 
enacted one of those fearful episodes in border life, then 
so frequent and appalling. 

After the massacre at Wyoming by the Indians and 
Tories, in July, 177!^, the remaining whites fled from 
the valley in every pathway leading from it. Homes 
were left smokmg, tire-sides were reddened with the 
blood of the weak and the young, while those brave 
ones, to whom were intrusted the defence of all that 
was dear, sank by the merciless knife, or the colder, 
stunning tomahawk. 

A party of six persons, consisting of two men, their 
wives and children, with a few household goods hastily 
flung upon a wagon drawn by oxen, thus sought the 
Delaware over this desolate route. As scenes so wild 
and exciting then transpiring at Wyoming around the 
dying and the unresisting dead, were supposed to 
occupy the whole attention of the savages, the little, 
retreating party, entered along this quiet glen, with 
hardly a thought of their approach or surprise. Hardly 
had a draught been taken from the creek, before the 
whoop and uplifted hatchet announced the presence of 

* This creek took its name after Timothy Keys, once living near, and 
who was slain by the Indians in 17*78, near Clark's Green. 



THE VALLEY HALF A CENTURY AGO. 217 

the savages as tliey sprang from die ambuscade. Before 
tlie whites could raise their guns upon their foes, and 
defend their families or themselves, one man fell by the 
dash of the tomahawk, while the (-ther darted away in the 
forest with such rapidity, as to draw away entirely from 
the rest of the party the notice of the pursuing Indians. 
It was now a moment big with peril. To flee at once 
was the only hope to escape captivity, or perhaps a lin- 
gering, barbarous death. Each mother gathered a child 
to her bosom, and instinctively hurried away in the 
deep, dark thicket of willows bordering this stream, as 
it flow^ed along that swampy lowland. From the knife, 
ah-eady gleaming and tried upon those they had loved 
so long, these bold women, with their nursing babes, 
successfully escaped. Althoug}i the stern wilderness 
frowned before them, and their assailants were prowl- 
ing in their rear, they left their hiding-place at night ; 
and, creeping from bush to bush along the Lackaw^anna, 
continued their journey over Cobb Mountain towards 
the settlements upon the Delavv^are. They subsisted 
upon roots and berries — the man.aa of the wilderness — 
and at night huddling together under some friendly 
tree, found wild-dreaming repose. 

After passing every danger and suffering, every hard- 
ship, heart-heavy, stripped and starved, yet trusting in 
Ood, they arrived at the village of Stroudsburg in safety. 

The Indians, as they returned from the chase, with 
the warm and dripping scalp in their hands, finding 
their victims beyond reach, cut out the lolling tongue 
of one of the oxen for a roast, leaving the other undis- 
turbed, in which condition they were found the next 
day by some of the escaping sett ers. 

Along the path from Keys, o/ Keyser's Creek, as it 

10 



218 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

sometimes is called (near which are located the works 
of the Union Iron and Coal Company), up through 
Providence the woods yet retained all their lonely 
aspect, until the Highland farm, now known as " Uncle 
Joe Griffin's," was reached. Here, where the broad, full, 
sharp outlines of the old Indian region steals upon the 
view, where Capouse warmed the south winds and gave 
glory to the chase, a region now turned into hamlets 
and thrifty farm-houses, or glittering with towns, stood a 
log cabin, its roof pitching down in such a slouching 
manner to the very ground as better to be able to defy 
the storms of winter. Here lived the family of Reuben 
Taylor, a half brother to John Taylor. 

Immediately above, Lafronse had a possession right, 
while on the present place of Benjamin Fellows, there 
lived an Englishman named Joseph Fellows, Sen., who 
emigrated to the Lackawanna in the year 1792. Sub- 
sequently he received a commission as a justice of the 
the peace, an office which he long filled in a well-mean- 
ing but quite eccentric maimer — frequently using a 
bundle of almanacs instead of the Bible while adminis- 
tering an oath to a witness. For his wife he knew no 
other name than " Rib." His nearest neighbor up the 
valley was Goodrich. 

Along the present location of the village of Hyde 
Park, stood the native forest yet untouched by the axe, 
with the exception of one small clearing made upon the 
'' Parsonage lot," as it was known in the early Colonial 
records. Upon the present site of the residence of the 
Hon. Wm. Merrifield, stood, in 1804, the unhewn log- 
liouse of Elder Wm. Bishop, who had officiated in Pro- 
vidence, in the capacity of the Jirst minister, as early 
as 1795. 



THE VALLEY HALF A CENTURY AGO. 219 

With the exception of the " Indian clearing," and a 
little additional chopping aronnd it, the central portion 
of Capouse Meadow or Tripp's Flats, was covered with 
tall white pines. The road lay along the brow of the 
hill for nearly half a mile from the house of Bishop, when 
it reached the two-roomed log tavern of Stephen Trijjp, 
who at this time bad a large distillery operating here. 

Tripp was a man of singnlar evenness of temper. He 
never became boisterous or belligerent. The nearest 
approach to it occurred here at his tavern. A stranger 
stopping at his house, finding the landlord agreeable 
and fall of social qualities, ventured to ask his name. 
He was told it was Tripp. "Trip, Trip, is it?" said the 
stranger, pleased with the reply ; " that is a capital, 
capital name I know, for I have a dog by that name — 
and ' Trip ' is a good dog !" 

Entering a small dark cabin, near where now lives 
Col. Ira Tripp, there sat a short, grey-headed man, more 
cheerful and communicative than his associates of the 
day, whose earliest life was full of incident and hard- 
ships, and who emigrated from Ehode Island at the 
time of the formation of Luzerne County, in 1786. This 
was the father of Stephen. 

About midway between this point and the Lacka- 
wanna River, a little to the northeast of the " Diamond 
mines," a small tract of rich land had been purchased 
by Lewis Jones from Wm. Tripp and John Gifford — a 
son-in-law of Isaac Tripp — who lived here at this time. 
Jones's farm included that intervale where yet lies the 
debris of an old still-house. John Staples occupied the 
Widow Griffin farm — adjacent to that of Alderman 
Griffin — which soon after passed into the hands of 
Mathias HoUenback. 



220 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

The Yan Stork property, originally passing from the 
proprietors of the town to Dean, and from him to 
Nathan Roberts for a barrel of whisky, came into the 
possession of that industrious German, H. C. L. Yan 
Stork, in the spring of 1 807, when but a few acres had 
been chopped and cleared upon it. 

Passing along through a short strip of pines, the 
smoke could be seen emerging from the cabin of Enock 
Holmes. This was standing upon the site of the present 
residence of E. S. M. Hill, Esq. Near the cottage of 
Daniel Silkman, then lived Henry Waderman, who, as 
late as 1810, when the first census was taken in the 
valley by the Hon. Charles Miner — a man to whom all 
accord the possession in a high degree of tliose frank, 
pleasing, intellectual qualities, which seldom fail to 
secure the regard of all — possessed the only cabin he 
could find above Providence. He recollects this more 
distinctly from the fact of staying all night with Wader- 
man, whom he found highly social and fond of relating 
stories of Bonaparte. 

Upon the fertile lowland, where now is spread out 
the beautiful Heerman's farm, no house nor shed diver- 
sified the surface, except the Homoeopathic one of 
James Bagley, which furnished little warmth or shelter 
to a bevy of children, cats, and dogs. 

At Clark's mill, some little 23retension to farming 
was made by Selah Mead, but it was not of such a 
formidable character as to deserve special mention. 
Hutchins — a man who had seen service in the Pevolu- 
tionary contest — occupied a little patch of land upon 
the gentle elevation north of Leggett's Creek, on which 
he was so fortunate as to sustain animation from year 
to year. This tract is now known as the McDaniel's 



THE VALLEY HALF A CENTUKY AGO. 221 

farm. The newly made stumps dotting up the adjoin- 
ing clearing above this, marked the finely chosen loca- 
tion of Ephraira Stevens, who, bending and white with 
the weight of almost a century, passed away a short 
time since, leaving this farm as a patrimony to his son 
Samuel. 

At this time, Blakely township was not formed, and 
few families lived in the district now embraced within 
its boundaries. 

On the farm so long occupied and owned by Col. Moses 
Yaughn, one of the worthy descendants of Capt. John 
Vaughn, lived John Tripp. The dense orchard growing 
down in the meadow upon the west bank of the Lacka- 
wanna, planted by Capt. Vaughn, denoted the place 
wdiere, with his sons, he drew nurture from the soil. 
Upon the Decker farm, there lived a man by the name 
of Wm. McDaniels, and his slow and sluggish ideas of 
agriculture seem to have left a perpetual lease upon it, 
but as the property has recently passed into the hands 
of Messrs. Pancost and Price, of Piiiladelphia, it is to 
be hoped that an improvement upon these fossilized 
notions will be introduced. The first clearing really 
made in Blakely was that of Timoth}^ Stevens, wlio, 
about the close of the Pevolution, commenced a chop- 
ping on the farm lately owned by James Mott, where 
he soon " logged-oflf " enough land for a corn and 
potato patch, and furnish the family with abundance. 

That singular but declining genius mentioned before 
— Nicholas Leuchens — lived at the extreme settled point 
u]) the Lackawanna, near the position of the present 
mills of Samuel Peck. At this time, not a single bark 
hut or cabin rose, nor had the sound of the woodman's 
axe spread along the forest above Leuchens, unless to 



222 LA.CKAWANNA VALLEY. 

mark the course ol tlie trapper or liuDter, coming 
throno:li from the Cf .der and more northern settlement 
in Mount Pleasant, Wajue county, a settlement made 
about nine years prev" ous to the period of which we write. 

Although Carbon' iale, Archibald, Jessup, and all 
the townships in Luzerne county above Providence, 
had not yet been C(*nceived, a " chopping " was com- 
menced upon the lands of Meredith by Franklin 
Ailsworth, in 1804, where now stands the '' Meredith 
Cottage." Having now reached the farthest settler up 
the Lackawanna upon the west side of the valley and 
stream, a glance will be given of the east or more thinly 
populated portion of the territory. The road or horse 
path, which ran down this, was a wearisome one to tra- 
vel, and the sights seen along it hardly compensated for 
the toilsome labor of pursuing it. For the greater dis- 
tance it was bordered and overhung with the dense 
growth of trees, and was built so narrow and rudely, 
that to go over it on foot or on horseback, interrupted 
every comfort for many hours. 

Moses Dolph, the father of Alexander, and grand- 
father of Edward Dolph, owned the fine farm, descend- 
ing to his son, while upon the one below it lived Samuel 
Ferris, the sire of Samuel, William, and John. 

From the lands of Ferris it was nothing but plain, 
heavy woods, for the distance of about one mile, when 
the blackened fallow of John Secor, with its accompa- 
nying cabin, was seen standing by the path-side. This 
was about a quarter of a mile west of the well-known 
mill of Slossons (now Crandleville). Between here and 
Dunmore two rights had been taken up and an improve- 
ment commenced ; only one was occupied by Levi 
Depuy. 



THE VALLEY HALF A CENTURY AGO. 228 

Two houses then composed the eiith'e number at 
Dunmore — one being the tavern of widow Alworth, 
the other the residence of David Brown. 

By the road-side between Dunmore and Slocum Hol- 
low, a log-house with its huge chimney and mud-plas- 
tered sides, had been awakened from the new clearing, 
and the squalid children crowding out of the door to gaze 
on the passer-by, or treading in the mud to their knees 
in building dams across the tiny stream, made up a com- 
plete picture of contentment and utter solitude. John 
Carey, one of the grandsons of Barnabas Carey, lived 
here at this time. 

At Griffin's Corners, upon a bit of new, rich land, 
there lived an old man, named Atwater, while on the 
Dings or Whaling property stood the old abode of Con- 
rad Lutz, which was now used by his son John, father 
of Michael Lutz, the present occupant. Pines, tower- 
ing and straight, frowned upon the intruding road, until 
the Roaring Brook at Slocum Hollow was seen. Eben- 
ezer and Benjamin Slocum, with their less than a dozen 
employees, enumerated all the w^hite inhabitants of this 
lonely and wooded region. 

Upon the bank of Stafibrd Meadow Brook, there re- 
sided an old man, to whose energy and labor some of the 
earliest developments along Eoaring Brook were indebt- 
ed — James Abbott. 

Farther on the rugged path, some two miles below 
Slocum Hollow, a tract of land had been improved by 
Comer Phillips as early as 1776. In 1804, David Dewee 
and David David occupied it. David's fate w^as melan- 
choly indeed, a year or two later. Being engaged one 
morning, before it was fairly light, in prying up a stone 
for his hearth, he was mistaken for some prowling 



224: LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

beast by Dewee who was hunting for his morning veni- 
son, and who thus unfortunately shot him dead on the 
spot. His widow, afterwards married Abbott. 

Situated upon the east side of the Lackawanna and 
the lowest farm lying in Providence township, was 
that of Scott, father of the great hunter Eiias. Step- 
ping from stone to stone, first upwards, then downwards, 
over a road on which wheels had never jolted, and the 
only dwelling emerging from the native wilderness for a 
considerable distance in the old certified town of Pitt- 
ston, was the thrifty and quiet one of Joseph Knapp. 

Knapp was a Eevolutionary soldier. At the surren- 
der of Bni'goyne he received a wound, rendering him 
for a long time unfit for service. After the declaration 
of peace he resided in Columbia county, K. Y., until 
1790, when he emigrated to the valley, settling in the 
" gore." * His land he paid for at three difierent times 
to three difierent parties before he obtained a satisfac- 
tory and valid title. 

His son Zephaniah, attaining to the age of seventy, is 
yet living among us. Much of his early life was spent 
along the streams and among the pines in the vallej^, 
in hunting, fishing, and in trapping the otter, tlie beaver, 
the martin, and the bear, which at that early period 
swarmed in the wildernyss. 

Sometimes be was out weeks ens^as^ed in a hunt, see- 
ing no white face but his own, mirrored in the shadowy 
water, and with the glowing camp fire by his side 
found on the feathery leaves and hemlock boughs, his 
only hivouac. He kept a curious record of the number 

* The gore was a narrow strip of land, lying between Pittston and 
Providence. It is now Lackawanna township, set off as an electoral 
district, Feb. 25, 1795 ; into a township at the November sessions, 1838. 



THE VALLEY HALF A CENTURY AGO. 225 

of bears and other wild animals he killed along the 
Lackawanna ; of the manner and the time of their cap- 
ture, and of their respective weight, in a work of over 
one hundred folio pages ; a work, we venture to say, 
unmatched in interest by any manuscript of the kind 
to be found in the country. He has given it the inimi- 
table, but rustic title of " The Leather Shirts 

This enumeration comprises the inhabitants in the 
valley a little over fifty years ago. To many who read 
these pages the foregoing particulars may seem dry 
and out of place, but to those who visit the Lacka- 
wanna Yalley, or make it their home, it will not be 
uninteresting to look back to its almost beginning, and 
contemplate the change years have wrought, and 
judge from the past how rapid and marvellous will be 
the prosperity of the future. 

Six years later than this the census was taken here 
by the Hon. Charles Miner. The names of the mem- 
bers of families residing in the valley at this time 
(1810) is in the possession of the writer, but their pub- 
lication would only present a long list of names few 
would ever look over. Within the district of which we 
write were then only three townships, viz. Pittston, 
Providence, and Abington. These exhibited a total 
population, forty -seven years ago, of 1,Y94 persons; 
divided as follows: Pittston, 694; Providence, 589; 
Abington, 511. 

According to the census of 1850, the same townships, 
after being divided into many others, furnish a popula- 
tion of 13,907. To-day it falls little short of 40,000 ; 
and a more enterprising, intelligent community, a more 
thrifty and successful people, remarkable alike for their 
love of liberty and their attachment to their country, 

10* 



226 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

can nowhere be found. In fact, it is impossible to con- 
template the unfolding progress of the Lackawanna 
Yalley for the last twenty years without astonishment 
and pride. It has been a progress at once so rapid, so 
liberal, so vast and comprehensive in its character as to 
exhibit alike the importance of the valley, and the 
sagacity of those to whom its development has been 
intrusted. Buried d^ ep in the forest of northeastern 
Pennsylvania, as it Iims been within a few years, walled 
in from the great world, by natural mountain bar- 
riers, like the Northmen among their glimmering crags, 
with no outlet to the east or the west, but for the slow 
coach, swinging along at the rate ol four miles an hour 
behind the jaded stage-liorse, with no incitement but 
its slumbering wealth, it has risen like a man awakened 
from his slumbers, strong, refreshed, invigorated, until 
it has become one of the most commercial and prosper- 
ous valleys in the State. 



GENERAL HISTORY. 

From 1774 to 1783, all the country described before 
was known as a part of the town and county of West- 
moreland, over which Connecticut held jurisdiction, by 
virtue of various purchases. Westmoreland, as defined 
by the early Connecticut surveys, extended one hundred 
and ten miles west of the Susquehanna, and was about 
one hundred miles in width north and south. Above 
the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chemung, it 
reached about five miles, including within its limits 
several large Indian villages, which were afterwards 
laid waste by General Sullivan, in his western expedi- 



GENERAL HISTORY. 227 

tion against the Indians, in the summer and fail of 
1779. In 1774: this vast expanse of territory contained 
less than two thousand persons ; more than two-thirds 
of these were males. In fact, up to this time, not a 
single white woman resided in Abington, Blakely, Cov- 
ington, and but three or four in Providence. Towns 
were laid out five miles square, with the exception of 
the " Sixth Mile Town, or Capouse " (Providence). In 
the ancient records, Pittston and Providence townships 
were known as two of the " certified towns occupied and 
acquired by Connecticut claimants before the decree of 
Trenton." 

The first town meeting held in the Wyoming Yalley, 
called together all the freemen in the settlements, from 
the Delaware to fifteen miles beyond the Susquehanna, 
and from the Lehigh north to Tioga Point, making a 
total vote of only two hundred and eighty-five.* 

The two towns above named were the only ones 
existing then in the valley of Lackawanna. At a town 
meeting held in Westmoreland, March 2, 1774, it was 
voted '' that Pittston be one District, by ye name of 
Pittston District, and that Exeter, Providence, and all 
the lands west and north to ye Town line be one Dis- 
trict, by ye name of ye Korth District. Isaac Tripp 
was chosen one of ye Selectmen, but refusing to serve, 
John Jenkins was chosen Selectman in ye place of Esq. 
Tripp. Timothy Smith, one of ye Constables and col- 
lectors, Gideon Baldwin, one of ye Listers (assessors), 
Barnabas Carey and Timothy Keys, two of ye Grand 
jurors for ye ensuing year."t 

By an act of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, passed 

* Miner. \ Westmoreland Records. 



228 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

the 25th of September, 1T86, an act the ahnost unani- 
mous passage of which, under the conflicting influences 
and interests existing then, reflected no little credit to the 
State; Luzerne county "* was erected out of that part 
of Northumberland county extending from the Nesco- 
peck Falls to the northern boundary of the State. 
Within its wild area it included all the Yankee or New 
England emigrants, except those in the ancient 
"Lackawa" settlement on the Wallenpaupack, and a 
few along the Delaware. It comprised within its 
boundaries all of Susquehanna, Wyoming, Lycoming, 
and Columbia, the greater part of Bradford, and a frac- 
tional portion of Montour and Sullivan counties. 

The formation of Luzerne county at this critical 
period in the history of Wyoming, while it contributed 
so much towards the repose of the settlements along 
the Susquehanna and Lackawanna, also annihilated a 
project equally bold a^id strange of the Connecticut 
landholders living in Wyoming, and led by Col. John 
Franklin, of forming a new State out of this portion of 
the country, with the capital at Wilkes Barre. By 
giving the celebrated Col. Ethan Allen several thou- 
sand acres of land, including some of the most valuable 
proprietors' rights here, his sympathies and, perhaps, 
his aspirations were naturally enlisted in the matter, 
and he was induced to espouse the cause of the Connec- 
ticut claimants against those of Pennsylvania. As his 
own State, Vermont, was formed in spite of New York, 
it was thought that an independent government could 
be established at Wyonilng, in defiance of the powers 
and wishes of Pennsylvania. At this time there wei-e 

* Named from the French A? mister, Chevalier de la Luzerne. — Chap- 
man. 



GENERAL HISTORY. 229 

six liiindreJ men in Wyoming, mostly Yankees, and 
with the invincible Green Mountain Boys, and the Con- 
necticut party from the west branch of the Susque- 
hanna, all commanded by Col. Allen himself, it was 
reasonably supposed that a body so formidable, having 
possession of the entire valley and every road leading 
to it, would be able to resist any force which Pennsyl- 
vania should choose to send against it. In fact, so ripe 
was the plan for the new State in its outlines, that a 
constitution, portraying the rights and the wrongs of 
the Connecticut settler, was actually drafted and ready 
for adoption. The appearance of Col. Allen at Wyo- 
ming in April, 1786, in his Revolutionary regimentals, 
gave for a moment to the contemplated scheme almost 
an actuality. The creation of the new county of 
Luzerne, however, introduced elements and authority 
into the niidst of the Westmoreland settlements, which 
the quick, keen eye of Allen saw it would be folly, if 
not treason to oppose. The colonel soon after returned 
to Vermont. Aside from the long conflict necessarily 
ensuing between the respective States of Connecticut 
and Pennsylvania in the attempt to mature this scheme, 
it is hardly possible to-day to estimate the revolution 
and the consequences resulting to the country, but espe- 
cially to the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, had 
the meditated State, with the hero of Ticonderoga at 
its head, been wrought into being. After the colonel 
left the valley, John Franklin, the acknowledged leader 
of the Connecticut interests here, who no doubt was, 
like all who were averse to the Pennsylvania claimants, 
shamefully wronged by Pennymite power, smoked the 
pipe of peace, and sought to aid the operations of the 
var ous compromising laws. 



230 LACKAWANNA VAT-LEY. 

A subsequent act, passed September 7, 1789, divided 
Luzerne county into five Election Districts. All this 
vast territory embraced then within its limits a popu- 
lation considerably less than the old township of Pro- 
vidence alone now exhibits, and only one more Election 
District than is now recognized in Providence. 

At the March sessions, 1790, as it appears hj the 
Quarter Session Docket of Luzerne county, "It is 
ordered by the justices, that this county be divided into 
eleven townships, viz. 'Tioga,' ' Wyalusing,' 'Tankan- 
nock,' ' Lakaw^anuk,' " etc. 

Lakaw^anuk was " bounded on the north by Tunk- 
hannock Township, on the east by the county line, on 
the west by the river Susquehanna, and southerly by 
the old boundary line of Wilkes Barre, and the conti- 
nuation thereof east to the county line." The total 
population of the county at this time was 4,904. 

At the August Sessions, 1792, Providence Township 
was formed out of a part of Lakawanuk. Previous to 
this time, those persons who resided in the Lackawanna 
Valley, either in the upper or lower portion, w^ere 
compelled to do public duty and business at Pittston. 

Before Providence Township held elections within its 
acknowledged precinct, the petition of Isaac Tripp and 
others set forth, " that the Town of Providence labor 
under great disadvantage by reason of being annexed to 
Lackawanna, that the inhabitants live remote from the 
place where the Town meets on public occasions, and 
that they have a very bad river to cross, which is im- 
passible at some times," etc. 

After this division was effected, elections and town 
meetings were held near the present location of Charles 
Drake, above the Lackawanna rapids. 



FORMATION OF TOWNSHIPS. 231 

Town meetiDgs were first lield in what is now known 
as Providence, in 1813, at the house of Stephen Tripp, 
above the present village of Hjde Park.* 

The vote of the township at the first election held in 
it was not large : 

The Federal vote being 46 Democratic ditto, 36 

In 1814, " " 47 " " 36 

In 1815 " " 51 " " 44 

This comprised all the voters living up the valley, 
as far as it was settled, as well as all of those residing in 
what is now known as Jeflerson, Lackawanna, Scranton 
Greenfield, Covington, and Scott. 



FOKMATION OF TOWNSHIPS 



Under Pennsylvania Jurisdiction. 

Providence, formed August, 1792, 



Abington, 

Greenfield 

Covington 

Blakely 

Carbondale 

Jefferson 

Lackawanna 



" 1806, 

January, 1816, 

" 1818, 

April, 1818, 

" 1831, 

" 1836, 

Nov., 1838. 



of parts of Providence and Pittston, including all the 
gore between the certified towns of Pittston and Provi- 
dence, and some other lands. 

* There lived in this region, some twenty-five years ago, an odd sort of 
genius, who was a peculiar artist in his line. A picture coming from his 
easel, needed an Audubon to determine a bird from a beast. A dauby 
representation of his native Hyde Park, N. Y., being exhibited by the 
road-side here, gave to this village the pleasant name it still retains. 



232 LACKAWANNA VALLKY. 



At the same sessions, Benton was made from Nichol- 
son, being all of what was then E"icholson in Luzerne 
county. 

Newton was made in January, 1844 ; and at Novem- 
ber session, 1845, Fell was cut off from Carbondale. 
Scott was cut from Greenfield, and Madison from 
Covington. 

ANCIENT DIVISION OF THE SAME TERRITORY, 

While under Connecticut Jurisdiction. 

In the Delaware Company's Indian purchase, towns 
were six miles square, while in that of the Susquehanna 
they were laid out five miles square, with only one excep- 
tion, and were divided into lots of 300 acres each, run- 
ning back two and a half miles. The only Yankee, or 
certified town on the Lackawanna, above Pittston, was 
Providence. 

The original laws of the Susquehanna Company, made 
at Hartford, Connecticut, set off or appropriated 300 
acres for the use of the first minister hi fee^ one for the 
parsonage, and one for school purposes, and three others 
to remain as commons or public lots, subject to future 
disposition ; the remainder were throwm into market for 
sale and settlement by the proprietors of the town. 
How a portion of this land was disposed of will be seen 
in the sketch of 



ELDER WILLIAM BISHOP. 

The first white man penetrating the wilds of Wyom- 
ing and the forest stretching from it to the Bear Moun- 



ELDER WILLIAM BISHOP. 233 

tain, is believed to have been Count Zinzendorf, a Saxon 
noble, who appeared among tlie Indians at their village 
in Wyoming in the summer of 17-12,* in the character 
of a minister or missionary, accompanied by Martin 
Mack and his heroic wife. To this country he gave tlie 
name of St. Anthony's Wilderness. f This was four 
years previous to the settlement of the Moravians at 
Gnadenhutten^ near Mauch Chunk, and just one hundred 
years after the first known and celebrated missionary to 
the American Indians — Dr. Ivannes Magapolemis — 
came from Holland and settled among the Mohawks at 
Fort Orange (now^ Albany), New York. 

The minister who first officiated in the Wyoming 
Yalley, was a Presbyterian named Jacob Johnson, for 
whom a house was built by the colony as early as 1772. 
Although he preached in all the settled towns, his salary 
the first year was only sixty pounds. 

At the time of the Wyoming massacre he fled to Con- 
necticut, but returning peace brought him again to the 
valley, where he was long an efifective, venerable pas- 
tor. 

The Lackawanna Yalley, however, had no ministerial 
labors until twenty-two years after this, and although 
the early social miscellany of this meridian made up a 
class of adventurers from Connecticut possessing large 
intelligence, patriotism, and some little piety, the ser- 
vices of their first minister entirely failed to reduce them 
to anything like harmonious practice. 

The self-chosen one whose labors in the vineyard of 
the Lord were to efi"ect among the scanty flock in the 
valley such wished-for results, was William Bishop, an 

* Miner. 

I Even's Map of 1147, in Ebling's History of Pennsylvania. 



234: LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

Englislimaii, of tlie Baptist denomination, wlio came 
into Providence in 1794, This was before the Metho- 
dist or any other denomination had any organization or 
existence in the valley. Previous to this time, a clmrch 
had been built in the town of Hanover, the first one in 
the colony, or in Luzerne county, which was exclusively 
used for religious purposes.* 

The parsonage lot in Providence, reserved for the use 
of the first minister infee^ lay on the east side of Hyde 
Park, and extended over the marsh or pond which now 
gives to the interior of Scranton such a piscatory picture. 

The Wyoming House, as well as the greater portion 
of Scranton, stands upon this lot. 

Where now is located the house of Judge Merrifield, 
in Hyde Park, the log-house and church of Elder Bishop 
emerged from the forest. One single log-room served 
for domestic and religious purposes. It was paintless 
and rude indeed. No bell, steeple, pulpit, nor pews, 
distinguished it as a house of worship : four plain sides, 
chinked liberally with the adhesive mud and wood, 
formed a room where the backwoodsmen met together 
with a sincerity and an absence of display, impossible 
now to find in the costly and imposing sanctuaries around 
us. 

The simple habits of the assemblage were in perfect 
keeping with the dark edifice itself. Women wore 
dresses made from flax and woollen, fitted so tight and 
straight as to resemble a bean-pole. These were some- 
times plain from the loom, but generally were colored 
and striped with a maple or hemlock dye, giving to the 
woollen fabrics every variety of finish and shade. In- 

* Judge Conyngham. 



ELDER WILLIAM BISHOP. 235 

stead of the thiii, consumptive dresses in use now, which 
afford but little support to the brittle thread of life, 
those old fashioned ones were worn, and furnished to 
the wearer what is so essential to long life and health — 
a generous warmth. 

The showy and often senseless duties of the milliner 
were but slightly appreciated here at that time, for one 
instance is related to the writer of a woman whose bon- 
net, cut from pasteboard and trimmed as plainly as a 
pumpkin, was worn summer and winter for the long 
period of twenty-two years^ with no other change nor 
" doing up " than the addition of a single new ribbon or 
string ! Appalling and incredible as may appear the 
fact to the girl or the matron of the present time, the 
person yet lives in the valley who remembers this pious 
and economical mother well. Broadcloth coats were 
rarely seen, unless brought from Connecticut. Their 
place was supplied by the rough, honest home-spun, or 
more frequently by a suit of bear or deer skin. The 
covering for the head consisted of caps made of panther, 
bear, wolf, fox, or coon skins, with the tails of the dif- 
ferent animals suspended to the shoulders or the hips, 
as best suited the fancy of the wearer. 

Boys and men went barefooted until they reached the 
place of meeting, carrying their sturdy shoes in their 
hands, putting them on during preaching, and after 
meeting would walk home many miles upon their bare 
feet, while they conveyed their shoes in the same man- 
ner they were brought. Many of the settlers were too 
poor to enjoy even this luxury of carrying shoes. The 
women were always seated upon one side of the house, 
the men upon the other. The habit of the male and 
female portion of the community being seated promis- 



236 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

cuoiislj in a country school or meeting-house, is of quite 
recent origin among New England descendants. 

Bishop's efforts, however, appear to have been use- 
less, if not actually pernicious to the cause so unfortu- 
nately intrusted to him. His sermons and his statue 
afforded a perpetual contrast. One was short, while the 
otiier was long with sulphuric odor, told in his own ex- 
pressive language of " infants in hell not a span long." 
His intellectual fire and logic becoming exhausted, and 
his sermons 

" Dry as the remaining sea biscuit 

After a voyage," 

dispersed both his friends and congregation. 

A clever anecdote is told of Bishop, by an old uncle 
of ours, wdio, while a boy, listened to his peculiar and 
impressive preaching. There are yet living among us 
a few old persons who well recollect the ancient habit of 
many preachers, of delivering their sermons and read- 
ing psalms in a drawling, singing manner, then deemed 
musical and appropriate. 

The elder was thus reading to the congregation the 
hymn, 

" Come ye who love the Lord 
And let your joys be known;" 

here he abruptly stopped reading, and lifted his hand 
to his head where he commenced scratching vigorously 
for a short time, when he seized something in his 
fingers, and with the greatest complacency, annihilated 
it upon the desk before him, accompanied with the 
remark, " Forty-three years have I been cussed with 



237 

this preverse generation ;" and immediately finished 
reading the verse, as if there had been no interruption. 

In a shrewd, financiering transaction of Bishop, 
exhibiting as little piety as that claimed by the savages 
just expelled from the valley, he closed his labors and 
turned away from this land of sinfulness. 

When the State of Connecticut gave up her claims 
to the Lackawanna, and all those lands embraced 
within the territory known at that day as Westmoreland, 
the actual settlers upon them at the time of their adjust- 
ment, delivered up their previous claims and titles to 
the State of Pennsylvania, receiving in return a certifi- 
cate or patent for the land from the State, which made 
the title forever indisputable. The parsonage lot in 
Providence being thus surrendered to Pennsylvania by 
Elder Bishop, he received a certificate for the same in 
his own name^ thus financiering the township out of 
nearly 300 acres of land, w^hose aggregate value is now 
over one million of dollars. This land he disposed of 
for a trifle to parties living in the Capouse, when he 
wound his way sorrowfully and sad over the Pocono 
Mountains to another State, where, it is to be hoped, 
that the genial atmosphere of his sermons resulted to 
the advantage of many. 



THE PKOPRIETOr's SCHOOL FUND. 

The fund in the township of Providence known as 
the "Proprietor's School Fund," had its origin in a 
provision full of forethought and wisdom in its con- 
ception. 

The original proprietors of the seventeen towns, cer- 



238 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

tilled to Connecticut settlers in the Susquehanna and 
Lackawanna valleys, surveyed and laid out certain lots 
of land for religious and literary purposes. Nearly 
2,000 acres were thus reserved in Providence by the 
Yankees. 

The Commissioners appointed under the act, offering 
compensation to Pennsylvania claimants, passed in 
April, 1799, issued certificates to the Committees for 
the time being for the said lots in trust for the use of 
the proprietors of said township, and the annual Com- 
mittees had from time to time sold and conveyed, and 
let upon leases for a long term of years a great part of 
such lots, reserving the rest for the use of the said 
proprietors. 

As the Committees, however, were supposed by 
many to be invested with little or no legal powers, the 
sales and leases made by them were so little regarded 
that some debts and rents, due the original Yankee 
proprietors, are yet remaining unpaid. 

A portion of the land thus appropriated by the old 
Susquehanna Company for school purposes, was sold 
the 17th of September, 1795, to William Bishop by 
Constant Searles, James Abbott and Daniel Taylor, who 
acted for the township. 

With a view of confirming such contracts and sales 
which at the time were deemed advantageous for the 
school fund, the proprietors of the township obtained an 
act of incor2:)oration from the Legislature during its ses- 
sion of 1835, similiar in its character to that obtained in 
1831 by the townships of Wilkes Barre, Hanover, and 
Plymouth, clothing the trustees of the township with 
all the privileges and franchises of corporations. John 
Dings, Samuel De Puy, William Merrifield, Joshua 



239 



Griffin and ^N'atlianial Cottrill were vested witli the 
authority of trustees under this act, until after the 
annual election. 

Althougli this act did not affect any sales previously 
made by individuals acting for the township, and conse- 
quently failed to reach and recover lands forever lost to 
it, yet it enabled the proprietors who w^ere subsequently 
elected by the taxable inhabitants of the district, to sell 
the remainder of this land lying in the vicinity of Hyde 
Park, for the sum of $3,300, which being secured by 
bond and mortgage upon the property, now furnishes 
by its yearly interest the " School Fund," a fund which 
contributes so justly towards the support and success 
of what is considered so essential to the promotion of 
national welfare — common schools. 

In reviewing the history of the Yankee settlements 
in Westmoreland, much of the thrift and sprighthness 
of the IS^ew England character can be traced in the 
elementary education imparted to them from the cabin 
schoolhouse along the forest. Many of the pioneers 
were men of deep religious sentiment and principle, 
and after their families had been sheltered from the 
storms and the intrusion of the inmates of the wigwam, 
they laid the foundation for the schoolhouse. 

The school records of the various townships in the 
valley, present no striking peculiarity, but as far as any 
judgment can be formed from the contents and charac- 
ter of the former records, both of school and society, it 
leads unavoidably to the conclusion that there has been 
no relaxation of effort in the cause of education since 
the earlier settlers passed away. The standard which 
they created has not been overlooked, nor has the 
common interest of every citizen in the education of 



240 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

the community been forgotten. While the district and 
higher school arrangements in the valley and the adja- 
cent townships are considered by many as superior — 
and some are eminently so — they would to-day suffer 
none by a comparison with those of any other older- 
settled country. 

The schoolmaster was at an early period both an 
object of terror to school children, and deferential 
importance to the " old folks " generally. The stiff- 
necked and often stupid parson only received more 
attention than the country schoolmaster — especially a 
Qiew one, whose reputation for " licking " the scholars 
had happily preceded him. 

It is well for the timid, nervous child that the barba- 
rous and surgical whip, the rheumatic ferule and the 
triumphant blows of a master, strong in muscle and 
weak in mind, have been laid aside as the coarser husks 
of the past. 

While the writer recollects his own schoolboy days, 
when he spent many an idle hour in the old district 
schoolhouse standing on the hill, surrounded on every 
side but one by the well-trimmed saplings, which were 
often applied to the coatless backs of the pupils, by 
some small vender of a, J, c'^, after the boys had been 
seated upon a high, hard, hemlock bench six or eight 
hours, he cannot but rejoice at the progressive character 
of the government in our common schools, as well as 
their grade. 

SETTLEMENT OF JEFFERSON. 

With the close of the Kevolutionary War, not only a 
marked change in the policy of the country generally 



SETTLEMENT OF JEFFERSON. 241 

was felt, but in the succeeding quietude after that all- 
absorbing period, emigrants began to settle along the fron- 
tiers with comparative safety. 

Although Jefferson township was only formed in 
1836, its settlement dates back to 1781, when Asa Cobb, 
taking advantage of this repose, chose a point for the 
location of his clearing and cabin, at the foot of one of 
the larger and steepest elevations, now called Cobb's 
Mountain, as it slopes down to the old Connecticut road, 
which passes over this high and red-stoned region. This 
was the primitive structure here in tliis township, and 
the present residence of his great-grandson Asa Cobb, 
now indicates its foriner location. For a long period of 
years, betw^een the single house in Dunmore and the 
clearing at Little Meadows, in Y«^ayne county, this was 
the only intervening dwelling. 

Jefferson is quite a wooded and secluded portion 
of Luzerne- county, and it was during Indian times 
and ravages, one of their retreats. Upon the very sum- 
mit of the mountain, a little to the north of the old Cobb 
house, the camp and signal fires of the Indian rose often, 
as the hunter, the trapper, and the warrior sat around 
the resinous logs, while the flanies of the fire rising up 
between the tree trunks, high a ad r-ed, could be seen 
for many miles to the eastward. At an early period, a 
large number of Indian implements for hunting, and a 
f^ew for agricultural purposes, were found around the 
bald summit of the mountain, near this clearing of 
Cobb's. 

In 1795, Potter made the next pitch in the eastern 
border of the to'wnship and county, upon one of the lar- 
ger tributaries of the Wallenpaupack Creek. 

The township is sparsely settled, and generally covered 

11 



242 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

with timber, yet it possesses a few farms of surprising 
fertility and beauty. 

The Moosic, or Cobb Mountain, interposed between 
Jefferson and the Lackawanna Yalley, has shut off all 
traces of coal formation, yet a coal mine was discovered 
a number of years ago, east of this range, by an oily- 
tongued, and an inventive kind of a genius, who had 
been promised by the owner of the land, a desirable farm 
in the beech- woods, should the explorer find stone coal in 
a certain locality. Making an excavation deep in the 
hill-side, he actually worked weeks in carrying baskets of 
coal upon his shoulder to the point of operations, from a 
distance of some six miles, before the blackened appear- 
ance of the drift afforded satisfactory evidence of the 
coal mine. The fortunate owner of this coal property 
was so well pleased with the discovery of the strata of 
coal upon it, that he immediately deeded over the pro- 
mised land. Of the profits of this mine, let others 
write. 

The country to the eastward and southward of Cobb's, 
alternating with meadow, mountain, and forest, yet pos- 
sesses somewhat of the still, deep gloom so natural to 
much of the native American wiklerness, when swept 
by the Indian or the elk. Wild beasts, to a limited ex- 
tent, yet linger among the dark caverns of the woods, 
extending from this point southward and westward to 
the w^aters of the Lehigh, and over the Shades of Death, 
along the Pococo, and haunt, in places less accessible to 
the footsteps of the hunter, and making now and then 
such visits to the farmer's sheep-pen, as must satisfy any 
one that the keen, frosty, mountain air of autumn 
or winter, gives a keener whet to the appetite than 
Tum. 



CHASE BY A PANTHER. 243 

The winter of 1835 was of terrible length and severity, 
from the prodigious quantity of snow which had fallen. 
Game perished on the mountains in large numbers, 
and wolves even sought the settlements for food. A 
wolf thus impelled by hunger, fomid its way into the 
barn-yard of John Cobb, Esq, in Jefferson, during this 
winter, while all the family w^ere absent but Mrs. Cobb. 
The bleating of the frightened flock attracted her atten- 
tion, although the yard was quite a distance from the 
house. Instead of having a hysteric fit, and upsetting 
all the camphor bottles in the neighborhood, as many 
would do to-day under similar circumstances she 
caught the pitchfork, and hurried to encounter and dis- 
patch the intruder. This was an easy matter for a de- 
termined w^oman, as the brute in its starved condition, 
had lost nearly all its strength, and although it turned 
for a moment, its lurid eye, and long, white, sharpened 
teeth upon the heroic assailant, it soon fell a trophy to 
the courageous woman. For the scalp of the wolf, the 
county of Luzerne paid Mrs. Cobb, the usual reward or 
bounty of ten dollars. 



CHASE BY A PANTHER. 

To the east of the Cobb clearing, eight or nine miles 
upon the old Connecticut road, nestles down at the foot 
of a long hill, a tract of low, wet land, known in the 
ancient records of Westmoreland by the name of " Little 
Meadows," where was made, in the county of Wayne, 
the first settlement aside from those along the Dela- 
ware. From this place to the Paupack settlement, a 
distance of nearly a dozen miles, stretched the unbroken 



'24:4: LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

wild woods, excepting where intervened a single farm, 
on which stood a tavern, remarkable only for its neat- 
ness within, and its slovenish appearance without. A 
portion of this distance is swamp land, grown full of 
alder, lanrel, beech, and the long wrinkled hemlock, 
and is a continuation of the swamp or " Shades of 
Death," extending their desolating aspect for a great 
space along the Pocono. 

Midway through this swamp flows the five mile 
creek in tlie most sluggish manner, from which the 
land upon either side of it gradually ascends for a dis- 
tance of three or four miles. 

In the autumn of 1837, while the writer was passing 
from this tavern homeward on one bright, fi'osty mid- 
night, accorhpanied by a friend, just as the clearing 
receded from the view, the horse and ourselves were 
startled by the loud cry of a panther, coming from the 
thicket along the roadside. The dry limbs cracked as 
the enormous creature sprang into the road behind ns- 
and it is difficult to tell whether horse or the whitened 
drivers most appreciated the perilous condition. The 
moon shone bright down among the opening tree-tops, 
as over the road, frozen, steep and stony, trembled the 
slender vehicle. Deeper and farther the forest closed 
up behind ns, leaving little chance for us to reach Lit- 
tle Meadows in safety. Turning the eye backwards, and 
+he approaching form of the panther could be seen with- 
m a stone's throw, leaping along at a rate of speed cor- 
responding with our own. The silence of the woods, 
the sound of the nervous horse-feet, the jar of the wagon 
over the stones, the terribly distinct yells of the pur- 
suing animal breaking in upon the surrounding gloom, 
and our own defenceless condition, made such an 



CHASE BY A PANTHER. 245 

impression upon boyhood — that although its mention 
may seem a wide digression here — it was never effaced 
nor forgotten. We shot down hill after hill, around 
curve after curve, with fearful rapidity, without utter- 
ing a word or hardly drawing a breath, expecting every 
moment either that the wagon would prove treacherous 
to its trust, or that every spring of the panther would 
interrupt our ride. Quite three miles until the brook 
w^as passed did this yellow beast follow up our trail, 
giving, as it came, its clear, appalling cries at intervals 
of every minute. Crossing the creek on a rude log 
bridge, the horse hurried up the ascent, while the pan- 
ther slackened his speed perceptibly, and ceased his 
shrieks, which induced the belief that the chase was 
abandoned. Not so, however. As w^e emerged from 
the solitude of the w'oods into the edge of Little Mea- 
dows, where breath was longer and courage rose to a 
wonderful pitch, we gave one " halloo!" so as to ascer- 
tain w^hether we had escaped from its reach. Hardly 
had the shrill echo of our voices sounded through the 
recesses of the forest, before there came from the reply- 
ing panther a scream, so near, so living, and so loud, as 
to impart terror by its wild accents, and prevent all 
farther intercourse with the too social animal. 

As for the panther, which had accompanied us six or 
eight miles during our moonlight ride, we took leave of 
him with less regret than we had left the smiling faces 
of the fair ones to whom we were so much indebted 
the evening previous for the stolen but genuine hospi- 
talities of lips. 



*-24:6 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 



TOWNSHrP OF CARBONDALE.' 



This township, like its settlement, dates but little 
back. On the 4th of April, 1831, it was formed from 
parts of Blakely and Greentield. Its soil and situation 
is too rugged to tempt the indolent and the aimless as it 
lies about 700 feet above the level of the Susquehanna 
at the confluence of the Lackawanna. 

The iirst improvement here was due to the genius of 
"Wm. Wurts, who, as early as 1812, with the compass 
and the pick in his hand, explored the various gaps in 
the mountain bordering the Lackawanna Yalley upon 
the east, with the view of discovering a possible outlet 
to the coal which he had found beneath the high bluif 
in the western part of the present town, and a vein or 
two he had opened in Providence, twelve miles farther 
down the valley. 

The lands about Carbondale originally were owned 
by an Englishman named Russell, who, at an early 
period, lived at Sunbury, upon the Susquehanna River. 
Tliese lands came into the possession of Wm. and Mau- 
rice Wurts at the time of these explorations. Some live 
years later they erected here a log-house for themselves 
and their workmen who assisted them at their laughed- 
at undertaking of digging among the rocks and rattle- 
snakes in this wild glen. Up to this time, neither a 
road nor horse-path led to the site where now Carbon- 
dale stands, although a marking of trees had been made 
through Rixe's Gap to Belmont and Mount Pleasant, in 
the adjoining county of Wayne. No frame house was 

* From the vast body of anthracite coal in the vicinity, Carbondale 
derived its name. 



TOWNSHIP OF CARBONDALE. 247 

raised here until Oct., 182S, when James W. Goff, Esq. 
— afterwards sheriff of Luzerne county — built a small, 
plain one for himself and family. 

The progress of Carbondale from that time until now 
has been rapid, healthy, and comprehensive. Brought 
into life by the genial influences and operations of those 
men to whom the Lackawanna Yalley was first awakened 
from its slumber, and placed, at least, one hundred 
years in advance of what it would have been without 
them, and in whom that great artery eastward from the 
valley, the Delaw^are and Hudson Canal Company, had 
its conception, it has received nurture from the develop- 
ments of this Company-, until the village has assumed 
considerable proportions of commercial importance. 
Already has it a population of several thousand persons, 
a number of foundries, factories, and furnaces, of every 
grade, and buildings varied from the finest architectural 
down to the barrel-capped, wretched shanty. 

Carbondale is now an incorporated city, and although 
it has probably attained its meridian, its inhabitants are 
nevertheless active, contented, and prosperous. It 
abounds in churches. Whatever may be the nature of 
the religious convictions of the mass, ample scope for 
their harmonious enjoyment is found in the different 
churches here representing every Christian denomina- 
tion. 

The principal coal mines of the Delaw\are and Hud- 
son Canal Compan}^ are located at this point, wdiicli w\as 
until recently the western terminus of the railroad lead- 
ing to their canal at Honesdale, and from where the 
first coal was taken from the valley eastw^ard to market, 
by William and Maurice Wurts, after their mines in 
Providence, which they had opened in 1816, and the 



248 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

route over Cobb's Mountain to the waters of the Pau- 
pack, were abandoned. 



LIFE UNDEKGROIJND — FALLING m OF THE MINES. 

Those who have never entered the midnight cham- 
bers of a coal mine, far away in the earth, where no 
sound is heard but the miner's drill or the report of a 
blast in some remote gallery, and no light ever enters 
but the lamps in the workmen's caps which are seen 
moving about like will-o'-the-wisps as the men are min- 
ing or loading the coal into little cars, cannot under- 
stand how perilous the ininer's occupation, or how nmch 
the place he works in reminds one of the great pit it- 
self, only this, in the language of the miner, is free from 
" the hate of summer." Some of the mines are mere 
low, jet-black coal-holes, gloomy as the tombs of Thebes^ 
while others have halls and chambers of cyclopean pro- 
portions, along which a:'e constant openings into cross- 
chambers or galleries, some sloping downward, some 
upward, in which roll along cars, drawn by mules, ac- 
companied by a boy as driver. Accidents not unfre- 
quently happen in the mines, by the explosion of pow- 
der as the lamps are continually around it ; by the 
falling of slate or coal, befoi*e props are placed to 
support the treacherous roof; and sometimes by the 
fallino: in of the mines themselves. After all the coal is 
taken from one strata or vein, miners frequently remove 
the pillars or props from the chambers so that the mines 
can fill in — this, in miner's language, is called " robbing 
the mines." 

During the winter of 1843 and ^44, a portion of the 



LIFE UNDERGROUND — FALLING IX OF THE MINES. 249 

Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's mines at Car- 
bandale " fell in " upon the workmen. Some days pre- 
vious to tlie final crash, the mine had in the phrase of 
miners began to " work," that is, the occasional crack- 
ing of the roof over where the men worked, denoted 
the danger of a fall. It came, and such was its force 
that all the lights in the mines w^ere extinguished in an 
instant, while the w^orkmen and horses which were 
entering or retiring from the black mouth of the cavern, 
were blown from it as leaves are swept by the gale. 
The men who were at work in their narrow chambers 
farther in the mine, heard the loud death-summons and 
felt the crash of the earthquaked elements, as they were 
buried alive and crushed in the strong black teeth of 
the coal-slate. 

One of the assistant superintendents of the mines, Mr. 
Alexander Bryden, w^as on the outside at the time the 
low, deep thundering of the rocks within came upon 
his ear. He hastened in to ascertain the cause of the 
disaster or the extent of the fall. Penetrating one of the 
dark galleries a short distance, he was met by three 
miners who informed him that the mines had broken, 
killing and wounding many, and that they had just left 
behind them about twenty men who were probably slain 
by the crushing slate. Although urged by the retreat- 
ing men to turn back and save his own life as there was 
no hope of rescuing their companions from death, the 
determined Scotchman pushed along the gloomy pas- 
sage, amid the loosened and hissing rock, which, like the 
sword of the ancient tyrant, hung over his head. He 
reached the edge of the fall. Earth and coal lay in 
vast masses around him, and here and there a body be- 
coming detached from the parent roof, came down with 



250 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

sullen eclio into the Egyptian darkness of the mine. 
Bryden was not to be deterred. TJie dim light from his 
lamp now revealed no passage ; it was closed — no — the 
huge slabs had so fallen as to leave an opening in the 
angle formed by the side and floor of the gallery. 
Through this aperture he crept upon his hands and 
knees, where he found it so small as he proceeded, that 
lying prostrate upon his abdomen and face, he forced 
himself along the foul and flinty hole. 

About one mile from the mouth of the mine, he 
reached the " heading," or the end of the chamber where 
he found the twenty miners alive, unhurt, and inclosed 
in one fallen, black, solid wall of coal! The brave 
Scotchman, whose lips whitened not until now, wept like 
a child, as among the number he found his own son ! 
The boy had all the metal of the father. When one of 
the three retreating fugitives who had escaped from 
this point, proposed before leaving to take away the 
horse confined here with the workmen, young Bryden, 
who saw starvation before them, replied, "leave him 
here, we shall need him !" 

Bryden was upon the point of leading out his men, 
when he learned that another lay helplessly wounded in 
the most dangerous part of the fall beyond this point. 
On he continued the perilous mission until he reached 
thelonely chamber. A faint cry from the miner, who 
was aroused from his slaty bed by the approaching light, 
revealed a picture of the miner's life, impressive, and 
sad. Almost covered by the Mien strata, he lay deli- 
rious with agony, blackened with coal dust, and limbs 
gashed and fractured with rock. Lifting the wounded 
man upon his shoulder, Bryden retraced his steps. For 
rods he bore him on his hands and knees, with the 



LIFE UNDERGROUND FALLING IN OF THE MINES. 251 

broken, flaccid arms of the miner dangling along the 
cavern. 

When the rock was too low for this, he first crawled 
along himself, and afterwards carefully drew his com- 
panion. Through perils which none can appreciate, 
who have not strode along the gloomy galleries at such 
a time, he bore him full a mile to the living world. The 
fall extended over an area of about forty acres, and al- 
though neither eifort nor expense were withheld by the 
Company nor individuals, to rescue the living, or to re- 
cover the bodies of the dead, the remains of a few have 
never yet been found. One man was discovered some- 
time afterwards in a standing position, his pick and his 
dinner pail bearing him company, while the greater 
portion of the flesh upon his bones appeared to have 
been eaten oflT by rats. 

Others, without water, food, or light, shut in from the 
world forever by the appalling w^all of rock, coal, and 
slate around them, while breathing the scanty air, and 
sufi'ering in body and mind, agony the most intense, 
clinched tighter their picks, and wildly labored one 
long night that knew no day, until exhausted they sank, 
and died in the darkness of their rocky sepulchres, 
with no sweet voice to soothe — no kind angel to cool 
the burning temples, or catch the whispers from the 
spirit-land. 

Eight dead bodies were exhumed, and six were left 
in — one, the only son of a dependent widow. Mr. 
Hosie, one of the assistant superintendents of the mines, 
was in them at the time of the disaster, and escaped 
with his life. Creeping through the remaining crevices 
in the break upon his hands and knees, feeling his way 
along the blackness of midnight, where all traces of the 



252 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

general direction of tlic*. mine had disappeared, he often 
found himself in an aperture so narrow, that to retreat 
or advance seemed impossible. Once he was buried 
middle deep by the rubbish as he was digging through I 
Another convulsion lifted up the mass and relieved 
him ! After being in the mines two days and nights, 
he emerged into sunlight, the flesh being worn from his 
finger bones, in his efforts to escape from the mines. 



PATHS AND K0AD8. 

Aside from the fact of the early emigrants from Con- 
necticut, who settled in Westmoreland, being generally 
poor, the excited condiviorl of the country along the 
Susquehanna, and the still wilder aspect along the 
Lackawanna, while the whole province was under the 
allegiance of the British Crown, demanded so much of 
their attention during this absorbing period, that with 
their constant '■^ gua7'ding^^ or lookout for the approach 
of the savages, or the rival parties of tlie Pennymites 
who menaced the harmony of the colonj^, diey found 
but little time to devote to the cutting or making 
of roads. 

Momitain trails made by the red-men centuries ago, 
and afterwards trodden by the whites who sought this 
region for the purpose of trapping or trading with the 
Indians for furs, led along the dark fringe of their hunt- 
ing and fishing grounds in tlie valley, and over the 
mountain peaks, where trees were small and scanty, 
nntil the year of 1769, when the Connecticut or " Cobb- 
Toad^'' as it is called, was opened from the province 
of New York to Wyoxiiing. All intercourse of the 



PATHS AND KOADS. 253 



Yankee settlement upon the Susquehanna with the 
parent state, was carried on over tliis road until 11 i% 
when another one was laid out from Fittston to the 
Delaware, passing through the desolate shades ot 
death, and terminating at Stroudsburg. From the 
Lackawanna to Canada there was, np until 1<88, no 
other pathway than the old Indian one leadmg np by 
their village at Con-e-wa-wah (now Elmira), which was 
settled by the white adventurer during this year. Ihis 
was the ancient trading path, and, as a historical item it 
may not be amiss to mention, that among the characters 
trading and trafficking with the Indians for fur-robes and 
skins, along this trail, as well as in the valley, was the 
afterwards distinguished John Jacob Astor. 

The conflicting claims to the territory embraced by 
the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, provoked a 
controversy between tlie respective States of Pennsyl- 
vania and Connecticut, long and embittered. The 
claim of the Yankees being annihilated by the Trenton 
Decree, the Quaker State assumed jurisdiction over 
Westmoreland. No longer crimsoned by the blood of 
conflict, the inhabitants of the valley turned their at- 
^ tention towards roads, which, during the war had been 
so entirely neglected that many of them were com- 
pletely obstructed by the sprouted and thrifty sapling. 

The first appointment by the justices in 1788, of the 
supervisors of roads in Fittston, was John Fhillips and 
Jonathan Newman; in Frovidence, Henry Dow Tripp. 
At the September sessions, 1788, held in Wilkes 
Earre— the first court after this decree— a petition was 
received " of Job Tripp and others, praying that proper 
persons may be appointed to lay out a road in the town of 
Frovidence. It is ordered that Ebenezer Marcy, Isaac 



254: LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

Tripp, Samuel Miller, Henry D. Tripp, Waterman Bald- 
win, and Jonathan ISTewman, be, and they are hereby 
appointed to lay out necessary roads in said town, and 
make return to this court at the next session." At the 
December session, 1788, they reported that tliey had 
laid out roads through Pittston, but had surveyed none 
in Providence, so their report was not accepted. 

As the road was essential to the wants of the upper 
township, the court appointed six housekeepers to 
survey one fifty feet in width. This followed the old 
road leading up through the Capouse, constructed under 
Yankee jurisdiction. The next year, John Phillips and 
David Brown were appointed supervisors of highways 
in Pittston, and Job Tripp and Wm. Alsworth in 
Providence. 

It does not appear, however, that any new roads were 
laid out or worked up to this time, by any of these 
supervisors — old roads only, being resurveyed and re- 
paired. 

Job Tripp, Constant Searles, Jediah Hoyt, Daniel 
Taylor, and James Abbott, living in Providence, were 
appointed in 1791, to lay out roads here. The present 
road leading from Pittston to Providence was surveyed 
by them on the 4th and 5th of April, 1791. This began 
" on the northeast side of the Lackawanna River in the 
town of Providence, beginning at Lackawanny River, 
neare where Mr. Leggett now lives," and thence through 
Providence to the Pittston line. Gabriel Leggett then 
lived a short distance above the present residence and 
mill of Judson Clark, in Providence. 

Up to this time no bridges crossed the Lackawanna ; 
the only way to reach the opposite bank was by fording 
it, and this could only be done at some seasons of the 



PATHS AND ROADS. 255 

year. A place in the stream where the waters were 
shallow was chosen for a ford. Different fording-places 
took their respective names from the respective owners 
of the land in the immediate vicinity. Thus, at the 
present Capouse TF^r^^— located about one mile from 
the centre of the old meadow by that name — was Bag- 
ley's ford, at Providence, Lutz's ford, etc. 

Near this last named crossing-place, on the western 
bank of the stream, were found the Indian graves spoken 
of before. 

Leggett's Gap road w^as laid out in 1795. 

The Lackawanna Turnpike Eoad Company was incor- 
porated March 22d, 1817, and was the first ticrnpike 
running along the valley. 

The Drinker turnpike was chartered in 1819. In 
April, 1828, the Carbondale and Blakely turnpike was 
chartered. May 5th, 1832, the Pottsville, Minersville, 
Carbondale and Susquehanna Turnpike Company was 
incorporated. 

April 9th, 1833, both the Carbondale and Tunkhan- 
nock Turnpike Eoad and the Carbondale and Lacka- 
wanna Turnpike Company received charters. 



JOUENEY FROM CONNECTICUT TO PITTSTON — MRS. VON 
STORCH. 

One summer's morning in July, 1793, could have been 
seen in the quiet town of Stonington, Connecticut, knap- 
sacks of bacon, bread and clu^ese, bundles of homespun, 
and sundry knick-knacks and culinary utensils arranged 
upon a covered Yankee wagon, for a journey to Wyo- 
ming Yalley, where report had given luxuriant soil and 



266 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

snnnj skies to every comer. The ox stood yoked, and, 
loafer-like, kept busy on his cud, the last mug of the 
metheglin had disappeared among the gathered friends, 
and as the last kiss gave notice of departure, none 
nestled in the wagon happier with day-dreams than 
Hannah M. Searles — now the widow of H. C. L. Yon 
Storch, and yet living in Providence. 

A journey then, with the slow ox team, tlirough a 
wilderness of over one hundred miles, was no easy mat- 
ter. A day's drive was about six or eight miles, over a 
road formidable indeed. When the shadows of night 
began to grow long, a camping-ground was selected by 
the road-side, usually by a spring or little brook, where 
fuel was abundantly collected, and the bright, welcome 
blaze of the lire among the woods, lonel}^ and deep, 
alForded light and company while supper was preparing. 

If, during the day's journey, no game had been se- 
cured by the trusty old gun, the bread and bacon soon 
smoked upon the chest-top, or some corn meal from the 
saddle-bags was quickly converted by skillful hands into 
journey or "johnny cake." Supper disposed of, and the 
oxen cared for by a good supply of hrouse^ an extra log or 
two was piled on the fire. After watching its blaze 
for a while, the little emigrating party either stretched 
themselves out on the ground or in the loaded wagon, 
and were soon in the soundest and sweetest sleep. 

After reaching the road leading Irom the Delaware to 
Wyoming, it was found almost impossible to penetrate 
any farther into the depth of the forest. Sometimes 
they had to break their way through low marshes, so 
gnarled and matted with the laurel and the alder, whose 
tops, overlapping the opposite shrubbery, formed such 
a barrier as to be overcome only by the stubborn ox. 



PATHS AND EOADS. 257 

Sometimes they coasted along the rapid creek, whose 
hoarse melody was only interrupted by the intruding 
cart-wheel ; sometimes over ledges, wdiose ribbed and 
wrinkled sides, rising to a commanding height, pre- 
sented mountain scenery, capped as far as the eye could 
extend with the blossomed woods. 

From the " Lackawa " settlement, upon the Paupack, 
to the Lackawanna, were but three dwellings in 1793 — 
one at Little Meadows, one at Cobb's, and the other that 
of Alsworth, in Dunmore. 

*One of the deserted clearings of the Indians on the 
war-path from Capouse to Coshutunk (now Cochecton), 
was called " Little Meadow^s " by the ancient settlers. 

Several acres of land, covered with a tall growth of 
wild grass, and lying some ten miles from the settle- 
ment, west, upon the Wallenpaupack, in a low, rich 
intervale, were found inhabited by the red tribes when 
the whites passed through it in 1769. A little creek 
here gropes lazily through the meadow, and flows into 
a neighboring pond, where fish were found so plenty 
that Indian parties frequented the place. Their wigwams 
stood along the western borders of this clearing in 1769. 

In the summer of 1770, the white man's hut was 
fashioned here, simply because this meadow afforded 
abundant pasturage or wild grass for the cattle of emi- 
grating parties. 

Away from the banks of the Delaw\are, this was the first 
real settlement commenced in what is now known as 
the county of Wayne. The merit of its success belongs 
to one Strong;. He was living here at the time of the 
Wyoming massacre. 

This farm is now known as the Goodrich property, 
into whose possession it came in 1803. It was the birth- 



258 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

place of that eccentric genius, Phineas G. Goodrich, 
known in every nook and corner of Wayne, as " lo7ig- 
nosed Goodrich," who writes of Strong, " I had this from 
the early settlers on the Paupack, who in 1778 hid their 
effects in the woods and fled to Orange county, to 
escape the tomahawk and scalping-knife. There was a 
skirmish here on our old place (Little Meadow) between 
the whites and Indians. The whites were mostly slain. 
I remember the mound that was raised over their one 
common grave. Indians and whites were buried to- 
gether. When a boy, I used to find the arrows and 
broken hatchets of the red-men around the mound and 
the hill." 

At the time of which we write (1793), a man named 
Stanton lived at Little Meadows, and to the first view 
of the observer, cranberries and children appeared to 
have been the most productive crops. Not so, however; 
for his large one-roomed house furnished accommodations 
for way-faring ones. It was styled an " inny Almost 
smothered with bushes and wild vines as it stood on the 
knoll sloping up from the meadow, the fare within was 
no more simple than its style. This consisted of two 
dishes, venison and the glowing huckleberry, which 
hung in great abundance upon the surrounding bushes ; 
but unless they were gathered by the guest, the luxury 
of a second dish was dispensed with. The huge fireplace 
was no small feature. All the stone in the vicinity, 
interlaid with great stratasof mud, seemed to have been 
so piled here in the chimney as to concentrate as much 
rain and smoke as possible in a small space. The guests, 
whose energies were emboldened to ascend a tottering 
ladder to the upper story, where the bare rafters came 
bouncing on his head, found only boughs and dried wild 



PATHS AND ROADS. 259 

grass, spread upon the poles which were substituted for 
flooring, for his reception and repose. 

A little way from the house lay the garden, produc- 
tive of little else than tansy, horse-radish, and a few 
sprigs of fennel. Tansy, with its many medicinal vir- 
tues, knew no other physician here, w^hile fennel for the 
Yankee maid formed their favorite smelling-bottle, and 
the old women used it to keep them awake during 
the long, dull evenings at home and at gatherings 
abroad. 

Such w^as the convenience and simplicity of this inn, 
whose counterpart was found at that day in many of the 
new settlements. Homely as was its fiire, plain as were 
its pew^ter dishes and single hunting-knife, the venison 
or bear-meat swinging from the sooty trammels hunger 
made always welcome. 

Fox-ineat^ however, seemed not to have been so gene- 
rally appreciated then. A stranger, who came along 
about dinner-time, could not resist the inviting smell of 
roasting meat. He sat down to eat. Taking a morsel 
of it in his mouth, it stung like cayenne. Thinking that 
the careless housew^ife had peppered one side of the 
meat too high, he turned the dish around and took a 
slice off from the other, with the same provoking 
result. He laid down his knife and asked the good-na- 
tured landlady, what kind of meat that was. " Why," 
replied she, very innocently, " this morning my hus- 
band killed a fox, so I thought I would roast the hind 
quarter." 

The stranger was furious. '' D m your fox !" ex- 
claimed he as he dashed platter, fox, grease, and all on 
the floor, and then hurriedly resumed his journey. But 
we digress. 



260 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

Cobb's house on the slope of the Moosic Mountain, a 
distance of about eight miles from Little Meadows, was 
reached. The white cover of the wagon, jerking up or 
down as it mounted over a root, or plunged into a rut, 
passed over creeks never yet spanned by a bridge. The 
plain house of Cobb, floored, ceiled, and shingled with 
tlie split slabs, was too small to accommodate the emi- 
grating party, who found in the hospitable wagon re- 
pose for the night. Asa Cobb made the first clearing 
here soon after the close of the Revolution. It was 
seven miles, or one day's journey from Cobb's, to where 
now stands the village of Dunmore. 

Here, at that time, one wide, deep sea of tree-tops 
stretched back to the very summit of the mountain with 
all its native gloom and grandeur, disturbed at this 
point only by the axe of William Alsworth, who nine 
years before had given shape to a rude, warm, comfort- 
able structure, early termed an inn. And, although the 
rude dwellino^ had little of the finish about it of modern 
times, the social comforts, and the substantial meals and 
beds ; it furnished to the casual emigrant, was evidence 
that Allsworth had lost none of the New England cha- 
racter. The good old man, who acted as landlord, 
ostler, and waiter, and doing every chore essential to 
household afiairs, never was so delighted as when he 
saw gathered around him the happy face of the emi- 
grant or his guests, and his greatest pleasure seemed to 
be, to smooth with his dry jokes and racy stories the 
ruggedness of each man's daily road. 

In thirty-one days after leaving Connecticut this little 
party reached Pittston, a place, at that time, consisting 
of only two frame houses. Even now, at the extreme 
age of Ttt, Mrs. Von Storch retains a bright eye, an elas- 



HURKICANE IN PROVIDENCE. 261 

tic step, and all the generous virtues of the descendantc 
of New England. 

Her late husband came into Providence in 1795 with 
Nicholas Leuchens, and, like hinj, was of German ex- 
traction, from Hamburg. Possessing all the frugality 
• and industry of the farmers along the Hhine, he accu- 
mulated a handsome property of which his sons are now 
the recipients, and, bending with the weight of years, 
he passed away. The seal of their remote ancestors, 
finely embossed — a Stork's head and neck, which was 
brouglit from Germany, is now in possession of the 
family. 

HURRICANE IN PROVIDENCE. 

"Within the last forty years no less than three of those 
frequent and fearful tornadoes, so analogous to tropical 
climates, have swept across or along the Lackawanna 
Yalley. The most disastrous one, or the "great blow," 
as it is called, visited the village of Providence on the 
3d of July, 1834:. During the afternoon of that day, 
which was one of unusual warmth, the thunder now and 
then breaking from the sky in deep, threatening accents 
gave notice of an approaching storm. It came suddenly. 

A strong northw^esterly current of air, probably from 
above, rushing down through Leggett's Gap, met the 
main body as it whirled from the more southern gap, 
contiguous to Leggett's, and concentrating at a point op- 
posite the present residence of N. Cottrill, Esq., com- 
menced its work of desolation. As it crossed the moun- 
tain, it swept down trees of huge growth in its progress 
like rye stubble, and formed a path wild with forest 
wreck. 



262 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

At Providence seems to have been the funnel of the 
northwest current, whicli, as it arrived at the Lacka- 
wanna, was turned by tliat from the southwest to a 
northeast direction. Before dusk the gale attained its 
height, when the wind, accompanied with clouds of 
dust, blew through the streets, lifting roofs, houses, 
barns, fences, and even cattle in one instance from the 
earth and dashing them to pieces in the terrible exulta- 
tion of the elements. 

Nearly every house here was either prostrated, dis- 
turbed, or destroyed in the course of a few seconds. A 
meeting-house, partly built in the lower part of the vil- 
lage, was blown down and the frame carried a great 
distance. The house and store of N. Cottrill, standing 
opposite the tavern kept by him at this time, was raised 
from its foundation and partly turned around from the 
west to the northwest, and left in this angular position. 
The chimney, however, fell, covering up a cradle hold- 
ing the babe of Mrs. Phinney, but being singularly pro- 
tected by the shielding boards, the child, when found 
in about an hour afterwards, was laughing and un- 
harmed. 

Some large square timber, lying in the vicinity, was 
hurled many rods : one large stick, ambitious as the 
battering ram of old, passed endwise entirely through 
the tavern-house, and was only arrested in its progress 
by coming into contact with the hill sloping just back of 
the dwelling, into which it plunged six or seven feet. 
In its journey — ox forcible entry ^ as lawyers might term 
it — it passed through the bedroom of Mrs. Cottrill 
immediately under her bed. 

Gravel stones were driven through panes of glass, 
leaving holes as smooth as a bullet or a diamond could 



HURRICANE IN PROVIDENCE. 263 

make, while shingles and splinters, with the fieetness 
of the feathered arrow, were thrown into clapboards 
and other wooden obstructions, presenting a strange 
picture of the fantastic. 

The office of the late Elisha S. Potter, Esq., standing 
in the lower part of the village, was caught up in the 
screw-like funnel of the whirlwind, and carried over 
100 feet, and fell completely inverted, smashing in the 
roof; it was left in its half-somerset position standing on 
its bare plates. The venerable and esteemed old squire, 
and Mr. Otis Severance, who was transacting business 
in the office at the time, kept it company during its 
aerial voyage, both escaping with less injury than 
fright. 

The embankment of the old bridge across the Lacka- 
wanna, from its south abutment was sided with large 
hewn timbers, remaining there for years, and well 
saturated with water. On the lower side these were 
taken entirely from their bed, and pitched quite 
200 feet into the adjacent meadow. An old Aspiring 
fanning-mill, standing at the front door of the grist-mill 
upon the ground, took flight in the whirlwind, and was 
carried in the door of the second story of the mill, with- 
out being broken by the power so rudely assailing. 

Along the eastern side of the road leading to Carbon- 
dale, in places where the focus of the current dipped or 
reached the earth, all was wreck and disorder. Young 
hickory trees left standing by the settlers for shade 
or other purposes, and apple trees bending with the 
ripening apple, fell like weeds, and the remaining 
branches and roots twisted, torn, and uprooted, revealed 
to the passer-by the strength of the blow. 

At the present, thriving, and appropriately-named 



264 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

Caponse works of Mr. Pulaski Carter, there lay at that 
day a strip of meadow upon the bank of the Lacka- 
wanna, where was standing a small carding machine. 
This building was demolished, the wool and rolls being 
spun like street-yarn for miles along the fields and 
woods ; extending in an oblique direction even to the 
very summit of the Moosic Mountain. 

One of the most singular incidents, however, in this 
hurricane, occurred to a young woman, who, like many 
timid ones of the day, sought refuge in the bed from 
the thunder and lightning during the storm. While 
she was smothered and capped in the feathers, the bed 
on which she was lying was whirled from the house, 
just unroofed, and carried along by the force of the 
black current of air several rods before she was landed, 
whitened and safe. 



BOATING ON THE LACKAWANNA. 

In early years the Indian's bark skimmed along 
the Lackawanna ; but whether its waters, now deep and 
then shallow, were navigable for crafts of larger size, 
remained for an odd genius to determine in 1828. 

When the spring freshets raised the stream to a proper 
height, the hardy raftsman, when the valley was new, 
rolled in his logs from the heavy-timbered banks, or 
lashed his boards together in raft-shape, and darted 
down the stream. When the valley was settled in 1770 
by the whites, the dams of the beaver interfered so 
much with rafting, that it was many years before the 
raftmen removed these formidable obstructions from the 
current. 



BOATING ON THE LACKAWANNA. 265 

Long after this had been done, this new, unsounded, 
and unmapped avenue to the Atlantic, began to absorb 
the old man's attention. This was simultaneously with 
the commencement of the North Branch Canal (com- 
menced in 1828, and completed to the mouth of the 
Lackawanna in 1834), and no doubt the influence of 
this great outlet to the valley, upon the old man's 
reveries, suggested the beauty and feasibility of this 
route. 

The character of the old gentleman partook strongly 
of the eccentric, and, had he fallen into the hands of 
some great tragedian before it took shape, he might have 
made a fortune ; as it was, he made a low, flat-bottomed 
leviathan scow, which common courtesy called a canal- 
boat 

About twelve or fourteen miles above the confluence of 
the Lackawanna was this constructed, and it is an inter- 
esting fact that this boat was built not far from the spot 
where the first anthracite coal was mined in the valley, 
thirteen years previous, by William and Maurice Wurts, 
and taken to Philadelphia by a circuitous route. 

The scow was completed, and, as the stern slid from 
the shore into the stream, hope, fortune, fame and divi- 
dends of romantic figure came to the old man's eye, as 
the sheaf yields wheat to the flail. All, however, rapidly 
disappeared when the boat safely moored in the " dam" 
was found too wide for the locks of the canal. 

He traded this boat for a farm, lying in Providence, 
which at that time was so encumbered and neglected as 
to possess no real commercial value to its owner, or to 
any one else. This same farm, owing to the great rise in 
coal property, was sold in the summer of 1856, for the 
sum of $25,000. 

12 



266 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

Great occasions, it is said, require great efforts. The 
problem of navigating this stream so happily solved by 
the passage of this boat, lent new impulse to another 
effort of the old man in the same direction, some years 
later. The coming spring of 1842 was looked for with 
unusual interest, because of the contemplated enterprise. 
Down in the little shallow eddy in the Lackawanna, op- 
posite the village of Providence, could be seen in the 
early part of this summer, two floating structures, as- 
suming such outlines of shape and proportion, as that 
good old arithmetic of Daboll failed to determine. 

The horse, hard driven and starved, and prominent 
with rib, afforded the best miniature illustration of these 
craft, as they lay drowsily in the dark water. These, 
when completed and laden with oars, were to convey 
to the outside world some idea of the maritime capacity 
and importance of this neglected stream. 

About three hundred years ago, when De Soto caught 
the first glimpse of the sluggish waters of the Mississippi, 
he felt little prouder than did the projector of these 
boats, as he saw moored before him, his world of beauty 
in these rude cut- waters. 

Before they were completed, the 4th of July came and 
passed, with its exciting din. A party of jolly ones 
from Hyde Park, inspired with patriotic fluid, loosened 
and manned one of the old man's crafts and ran it down 
the stream as far as their village, where they deserted 
its stolen hospitality, and down the curreut it floated^ 
until stranded upon the bar of an island, where it was 
afterwards found and finished by the owner. 

The single boat was at length launched into the 
swifter water at Providence. The crowd had gathered 
upon the bank and stood contemplating the unusual 



BOATING ON THE LACKAWANNA. 267 

event. Some of the foolish ones who had grown rich 
slowly by making potash, or peddling Yankee notions, 
shook their heads soberly, and doubted his making a for- 
tune so suddenly ; but being behind the age, as some 
men always are, nobody expected anything else from 
them, and of course, every sensible one laughed at their 
unbelief. 

Could the reader have seen the simple good-nature 
streaming from the old man's eye, and the benevolence 
smiling upon you as steadily as twilight comes from the 
sky, as he stood there clad in honest homespun coat and 
pantaloons, a w^ide-brimmed hat upon a head oscillating 
forty times a minute, from side to side, like a disturbed 
magnetic needle ; a shirt opening on a neck bare and 
reddened with the sun, a sharp-featured face, which had 
cut the winds of half a century ; a nose, careless and 
liberal with latitude and longitude, coming down to a 
point like a figure four, and a pair of legs looking as if 
they were capable, with a little effort, of going over a 
great space of ground in a very short space of time, and 
the genius who cared so little for the opinions and 
doubts of others around him stands before you. 

Onward fl.oated liis craft, and as they dallied in the 
lap of the stream, disorder came from quiet along the 
Lackawanna. Drowsy cattle started from their clover 
pasturage ; old brindle's cow-bell gave from its brassy 
dome a sudden chime ; the housewife left her churn ; 
the plough-boy, forgetting his sober duties, opened wide 
his mouth upon the passing leviathans ; the angler, who 
but a "moment before saw proportion in the fin just 
tempted from the pool, turned upwards his eye on the 
intruding contrivances looming up before him ; in-door 
and out-door afi'airs went wrong, or were neglected en- 



268 LACKAWANNA. VALLEY. 

tirelj, as tliese boats glided along, and at length dis- 
appeared from the sight. 

Near Old Forge, the waters of the Lackawanna wash 
over a strata of rock with such considerable velocity, 
as to have suggested to the mind of some Alpine genius 
the name of " falls." 

As this point was reached, the ledge and swift cur- 
rent frowned upon the hopes of the unskilled boatmen. 
The oar, first pulled this, then that way in the most be- 
wildered manner, only made more certain the coming 
crash. It came, when all the sublimity of one of the 
wooden structures passed, in one short moment, into a 
simple wreck. It passed over the feeder-dam, lodging 
in the throat of a neighboring mill-race, and when the 
obstruction was removed, the old gentleman's purse was 
thinner. The other boat shot safely through the 
rapids. 

The oars, of which there were 45,000 feet running 
measure, had preceded the boats. Thrown into the 
stream loose, they had lodged upon every bar, requiring 
weeks of toil and wading to float them to the canal. 
Arriving here, they were found, from the want of pro- 
portion, to possess no value unless remodelled. They 
were eighteen feet long, with a blade of only three feet. 
The remaining boat, and the oars after being re- 
fashioned, were sold for an infinitesimal sum ; this new 
route to the Atlantic was abandoned, and it is possible 
that the dividends will ever remain a matter of romance, 
as a summer's work and $800 were lost in the opera- 
tion. 



THE KISE OF METHODISM IN THE VA.LLEY. 269 



THE RISE OF METHODISM IN THE VALLEY. 

Five years before that long, unequal struggle, which 
gave birth to freedom in America, began, the Lacka- 
wanna Valley was explored and settled by the whites. 
As the emigrants who came here, as well as those who 
were camped on the fertile fiats at Wyoming, were 
mostly Presbyterians, a religions organization was easily 
effected among them, by the aid of the Eev. Jacob 
Johnson, who officiated in the colony at Westmoreland as 
early as 1772, and who, for many years, was the only 
minister, with one exception, in all the wide, wooded 
territory lying between Fort Angusta (S anbury) and 
the Mohawk. E'ot so, however, with the Methodists. 
As the noiseless border of the Lackawanna began here 
and there to be broken by the pioneer, whose physical 
wants overshadowed all those of a spii-itual and higher 
character for a time. Sabbath morning with all the 
youthful, home associations of other days, came and 
passed with better observance. Hunting, fishing, horse- 
racing, and wrestling for the drinks, were among the 
many ways chosen to wear away a Sunday,by a large 
proportion of the inhabitants many years ago. Reli- 
gious elements at length began to impress their impor- 
tance upon the settlement. 

Methodism itself, however, only dates back to 1729. 
The first Methodist preaching on the American conti- 
net was in ]^ew York in 176G, where an L-ish minister 
with no church * but the barracks, and no congregation 
but a handful of believers, pointed out to the plain, 

* The first Methodist church was built in N. Y. in 1168. 



270 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

good people who lived in the land of the Knickerbock- 
ers, the way to a better world. 

Lnzerne county was formed in 1786, and up to this 
time no Methodist preaching had been heard in any 
portion of the country embraced within its limits. 

In two years later, one of those erratic persons who 
hew out for themselves a character for usefulness amon": 
their associates, emerged from a blacksmith shop in 
Kingston, and commenced to exhort and exphiin to 
those who wished to learn and listen to the liberal doc- 
trines of Methodism. This was Anning Owen. Never 
neglecting the duties of his shop, he officiated in this 
religious instructive capacity for a few seasons, when 
he became a circuit preacher of some attainment and note. 

During the year 1791, the first Methodist society in 
the Lackawanna Valley was organized, at the old forge 
of Dr. William Hooker Smith and James Sutton, by the 
Rev. James Campbell, wlio had been sent over the 
mountain by the Philadelphia Conference, for that pur- 
pose. There was at that time but five members here, 
and of this little group James Sutton was class leader. 

In the summer of 1792, Mr. Owen penetrated up the 
valley as far as the house of Capt. John Yaughn, in 
Providence (now Blakely) where he preached to the 
gathered few. Yaughn himself had early imbibed the 
broad and easy doctrines of Universalism, but their 
utter destitution of truth was so demonstrated to his 
mind, that he forsook them all al)out this time, and 
became a convert to Methodism. He also held meet- 
ings in two or three other private log-houses or cabins 
along the settlement, where a minister was permitted to 
stay all night, and enjoy the rude hospitality of the times. 

Francis Asbury, Bishop of the United States, in a 



THE RISE OF METHODISM IN THE VALLEY. 271 

reconnoitre of the country in 1793, passed through the 
Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys. He appointed 
Valentine Cook presiding elder. 

In 1800, Methodist meetings were held at the house 
of Preserved Taylor, in Providence, who lived upon the 
western border of the Capouse Meadow. After Taylor's 
removal from here, the dwelling of Elisha S. Potter, 
Esq., standing farther up the valley, was used for 
this purpose. In fact, the lonely schoolhouse or the 
isolated cabin of the settler, afforded the only places for 
religious gatherings in the valley until a quarter of a 
century ago, when there was erected the first meeting- 
house in that very portion of the territory which was 
last settled — at Carbondale. 

Meetings were sometimes held in the woods previous 
to this, from bare necessity. Some shaded nook, where 
the waters of a brook trembled along the pebbles, and 
lost themselves in the distance among blossoms and 
bird-songs, was chosen for a camp-ground. Here, 
around a cleared circle, rose the whitened tents, like the 
wigwam of the Indian, in which were collected joyous 
groups of old and young, whose pilgrimages to this wild- 
wood Mecca, w^ere long remembered with deep and 
pleasant emotions. 

Although it is feared that the writer has wandered far 
away from the good path once trodden by those who 
were thus battling for the Lord, he yet loves those stir- 
ring and life-guiding spirits who along the deep-toned 
forest, or the sober elsewhere, point the despairing eye 
towards the throne of Light. 

Elder Christopher Fry and Mr. Griffeth, two brave, 
noisy ones, in 1803, went forth like John the Baptist 
to prepare the way of the Lord. 



272 LA.CKA WANNA VALLEY. 

They preaclied at Kingston, Plymouth, Shawney, 
"Wilkes Barre, Pittston, Providence, crossed the Moosic 
Mountain at Cobb's, journeying through Salem, Caanan, 
Mount Pleasant, Great Bend, and Tunkhannock, and 
preaching in all these places before returning to Wyom- 
ing. In 1807, a regular circuit was formed and a por- 
tion of the same route was travelled over twelve times 
a year, or once in every four weeks. From 1810 until 
1818, Geo. Harman and Elder Owen officiated here in 
this vineyard. One of the prominent members of the 
church here then was old " Father Ireland," as he was 
familiarly called, who emigrated to Providence town- 
ship in 1795, and settled upon what is now known as the 
Briggs's farm. He was a long time a class-leader. In 
his intercourse with the world, his kindness of heart 
and his calm and virtuous life until his sun passed be- 
hind the horizon after a long day, contributed no little 
towards softening the prejudices of the illiberal against 
the Methodist Society. 

E"o event, however, transpired which seems to have 
had so important a bearing upon the development of 
the church in this vicinity, as the accession to it of the 
labors of the Kev. George Peck, D.D., in 1818. The 
progress of this organization from then until now has 
been so sure, so liberal, and so certain, that it now is 
one of the largest and most respectable ones found in 
the valley. 

Although many of the uncharitable charge the spirit- 
ual advisers of this denomination, with mercenary view 
as they direct the wanderer on the New Jerusalem, we 
find them as a bod}^ to possess as little selfishness, and 
quite as much true, honest, available capacity, and 
appreciation of the right, as can be found in the same 



SMELLING HELL. 273 

number of men of any creed or profession in the country, 
and although none within the writer's acquaintance 
commands a fortune, few a competency, while many 
are comparatively beggared, thus affording a wretched 
commentary on the drought of the judgment of the 
illiberal. And yet beset with every inducement, how 
rarely do they wield their talents for money, position, or 
power ! 



SMELLma HELL. 

Anning Owen was a son of Yulcan, a stout, swarthy, 
genuine specimen of earnestness, who spoke all he 
knew, and sometimes more, in the most impulsive man- 
ner. Often would he remark that he preached just as 
he would hammer out hot iron, to make an impression. 
His sermons were always extempore, as good ones gene- 
rally are, and should be, and after he became once 
warmed up in his favorite subject his eye grew bright, 
his voice full and clear, and he then displayed eloquence 
of a commanding order. 

The Methodist at this time labored under one severe 
disadvantage. The self-sacrificing and sometimes bois- 
terous men, who were toiling for their race merely for 
the sake of good, with few thanks, with little or no pay, 
and often with the scantiest and the coarsest fare, were 
accused of ignorance, heresy, and fanaticism, and yet 
under the effective appeals of Elder Owen much of this 
error was removed, while the church began to prosper 
in every way desirable. The loud "hallelujahs," 
" amens," and " glorys " which pealed forth from the 
preachers so sharply as to be heard at least half a 

12^ 



274 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

mile from the stand at this period, was so different 
from the sober mode of worsliip of the more numerous 
Presbyterians, that many thought them crazy, and in 
one or two instances attempted to enforce silence by 
violent measures. 

A good story is told of Elder Owen by an old uncle 
of the writer, wiio heard him preach at a quarterly 
meeting, held at the court-house in Wilkes Barre, in 
the winter of 1806. IS^ever closing his sermons without 
reminding sinners of the danger of hriioistone^ it had at 
length become so proverbial that the boys in a sportive 
mood (for there were sons of Belial in those days), had 
a living illustration of the virtues of his doctrine, at 
the Elder's expense. In the south wing of the court- 
house there was a large fire-place, in which smoked a 
huge beechen back-log. Behind this some of the boys 
had placed a yellow roll of the genuine article before 
the meeting had commenced in the evening. The 
Elder — or the son of Thunder as he was called — opened 
his battery with more force than usual upon the citadel 
of Satan. He began to grow excited while elucidating 
the words of his text, " he that believeth not shall be 
damned." The flames of the fire began to penetrate 
the region where lay concealed the warming and 
wicked brimstone, the fumes of which spread through 
the room in the most provoking manner. The Elder^ 
with such a reinforcement to his brain and his battery, 
felt inspired. Although ignorant of the joke the devil 
was playing upon him, he soon appreciated the odor of 
his resistless agent. Turning his eye upon the uncon- 
verted portion of the congregation, he exclaimed in a 
loud voice, " Sinners ! unless you are converted you will 
be cast in the bottomless pit." Pausing a moment as 



GREENFIELD AND SCOTT. 275 

he glanced indignantly upon the tittering ones who 
were enjoying the scene in an eminent degree, he raised 
himself to his utmost height, elevated his voice to a 
still loftier key, and at the same time bringing down his 
clenched fist with a powerful stroke upon the judge's 
desk, cried out, " Sinners, why don't you repent, dorCt 
you smell hellf^ 

It may be interesting to note that in 1833 the long- 
remembered patriarch, Lorenzo Dow, with his long, 
white beard and imposing equipage, in passing down 
the valley to his southern death-bed, preached to a vast 
assemblage in a barn in Providence. This barn was 
blown over by the great gale here in 1834. 



GREENFIELD AND SCOTT. 

In the early settlement of the township of Greenfield, 
from which Scot w^as formed, nothing transpired worthy 
of especial note. These two highland sisters, reposing 
on the western slope of the Moosic range, present a rug- 
gedness of elevation and surface hardly equalled by any 
other township along the Lackawanna. Until the for- 
mation of Greenfield in 1816, this portion of country 
was designated as the " Beech-woods." Scott townshij^ 
derived its name from Judge Scott, the former owner of 
these lands. The first settlement was made here in 1797. 

Among the old settlers here appear the names of 
Elijah Hobbs, Hosea Phillips, Joseph Sackett, from 
Yermont ; Joseph Barrj^, from Phode Island ; Isaac 
Finch, Joseph and Daniel Waller, Mr. Wether by and 
his sons Nathaniel and Levi, Howe, Hollaber, Newton, 
Potts, and Nokes. 



276 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

The wildness of this region can be understood bj 
the fact, that in 1798, the wife of Nokes was lost in the 
woods five days before she was found by one of the 
parties hunting her. Just at the edge of evening, 
while looking for the cow in a thicket near her house, 
she became confused and wandered away, leaving an 
infant of but few weeks old sleeping in the cradle. 
One long night she passed in a tree-top, surrounded by 
a horde of wolves, shrieking and hungry, which, in 
their efforts to reach her as she clung to the bending 
limbs, tore the bark from the tree within the reach of 
their teeth or their feet. In the morning they left, and 
she ventured down. She subsisted on birch, and on milk 
drawn from her own breast. 

Both of these townships possess land heavil}^ tim- 
bered with the finest maple, hemlock, and beech, 
alternated with strips of pasturage, and farms of the 
most lasting fertility. 

Although the population is not large, there is a 
greater amount of real hospitality, happiness, and 
health among them than in many other older and larger 
townships. 

No coal nor any minerals are found in either of these 
agricultural townships. 



CHARLES H. SILKMAN. 

Between the village of Hyde Park and Providence 
bristles from the road-side a clump of yellow pines. 
Almost under these stands a low cottage, invested with 
a deserted air, although it once was made attractive by 
that able lawyer and smoking philosopher whose name 



CHARLES H. SILKMAN. 277 

appears above. A brilliant, vivacious, but treaclierous 
companion, he presented a remarkable compound of 
virtues and vices. He loved nothing with less selfish- 
ness than his inspiring pipe whose bowl always smoked 
in his lips, until night brought heft to his eyelids. His 
knowledge of mankind, his great social qualities when 
not embittered w^ith the blood of the sour family, and 
his wonderful insight and control of human character, 
fitted him for any position in life, and made him at 
times, profuse in hospitality, elegant in his entertain- 
ment, and the fountain of wit and story, provokingly 
amusing. It matters nothing to the reader, what he 
did by way of livelihood to sustain animation in tliat 
lazy chair, vacated only wdien his pipe was emptied, 
counter and diverse, indeed, were the influences he 
strongly exercised over the interests of the valley in his 
day. 

After all, though many took pains to dislike the now 
warm and the then ic}^ nature accorded to him, the 
writer rather admired this erratic spirit. Sharp, clear, 
and sound in all appertaining to law, few indeed were 
the lawyers in the northern portion of Pennsylvania 
whose legal knowledge and position might not have 
profited more to their possessors than did his. The 
western bar has met with the accession of this gifted 
thinker, where he has already attained distinction. For 
a period of years before the Kew County and the 
Feeder to the North Branch Canal up the Lackaw^anna 
as far as Providence had attained their meridian, few 
men done more in endeavorins: to mature both of these 
unfortunate projects than did Silkman himself. 



278 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

COAL LANDS FIFfY YEARS AGO. 

Turning your eye to the south of this cottage but a 
few yards, you look down into a black rocky glen, so 
worn by the rapid stream dashing through it, after any 
heavy rain or sudden snow-thaw, as to make it look 
almost cavernous. Down this rock-rimmed ravine 
where it gently slopes off into the old Indian meadow 
of Capouse just below, lived at the time we speak of, 
Stephen Tripp, who came into the valley from Rhode 
Island in 1786. 

Upon the brink of Leggett's Creek, in the eastern 
portion of Leggett's Gap, a small grist-mill was erected 
in 1805, by Joseph Fellows, sen., but as the ilint}^ bank 
upon one side rose up from the creek, almost vertical to 
a distance where it swelled into a full mountain, and 
upon the other ascended quite as abruptly over a hun- 
dred feet, neither road, team, nor grist could approach 
the mill with safety ; so the enterprise proved just 
about as beneficial to mankind, as the famous saw-mill 
of Thomas Jefferson in olden times. 

This virgin mill site, and much of the land in the 
immediate vicinity of the " Notch," Fellows purchased 
of Tripp, about half a century ago, for five gallons of 
whisky ; Fellows stipulating in the purchase to pay the 
expense of survey and deed. Whisky being worth at 
this time one dollar per gallon, this sale realized about 
the sum of five cents jper acre for the land ! 

A portion of this very property is now operated by 
the energetic Luzerne Coal Company — a company 
under the liberal and successful management of B. F. 
Sawyer — at an original cost to them a year or two since 
of $500 per acre. 



DISCOVERY AND INTRODUCTION OF ANTHRACITE COAL. 279 

Some estimate of the value of coal lands at this 
period can be formed by the following incident. A 
then young man from Connecticut who yet lives in the 
adjoining county of Wayne was passing along through 
Slocum Hollow (now Scranton), and observing a pro- 
minent cropping of coal by the road side, asked tlie 
owner what it was, and what it w^as good for? 

" Wal," replied the owner, who suspected it was no 
great credit either to his judgment or his pocket to 
possess such land, " they call it stone coal, I believe, 
but I wish the cussed black stuff was off!" 



THE DISCOVEKY AND INTRODUCTION INTO USE OF ANTHRA- 
CITE COAL. 

When the whites first landed in America, all the 
country east of the Susquehanna Kiver was occupied by 
a race of Indians since knowm as the Algonquin Lenajjye^ 
or manly men of the Algonquin Mountain (Indian 
men). Ko sooner had the w^iite men moored their 
vessels and stept upon the coast, than the astonished 
natives cried out, " Manittowock !" they are godsf^ 
This simple illusion, howeve, was soon dispelled by their 
intercourse with the Shawenacas (white people) whom 
they soon learned to fear, and then to hate, from their 
aggressive character. The loss of much of their hunt- 
ing grounds, w^hich they had inherited from the Great 
Spirit, and over which they had camped and wandered 
undisturbed for centuries, until driven southward and 
westward by the encroachments of the pale face, and the 

* Roger Williams. 



280 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

bold and often deceptive manner in which their mineral 
places were invaded by the whites in violation of law 
or treaties, naturally made the Indian anxions to conceal 
from them all localities wliich were known to possess 
mineral substances. In fact, so rigid were the laws of 
the Indian nations in regard to this, that tlie red man 
who revealed to the whites any information in regard 
to any ore or valuable locations, perished by the fagot 
or the flint. 

When land passed from the aboriginal races into colo- 
nial or private hands, all knowledge of desirable depo- 
sits was carefully concealed by the Indians. Tradition, 
much of it highly improbable, tells of lead, iron, cop- 
per, silver, and gold mines in neighborhoods familiar 
to savage tribes, but so completely concealed by them 
at the time of their departure, that the existence of any 
such appears quite as indefinite as their locality. Al- 
though it is barely possible that loug before the blank- 
ness of the Indian's life w^as interrupted by the European 
race, they knew of the existence of gold, silver, and 
" hlach stones,^^ their commercial value was only taught 
them by the whites.* Of the value of coal, both were 
ignorant of until about the middle of the seventeenth 
century, although coal was dug and worked in England 
about two hundred years before the discovery of the 
American Continent. 

The colonial wars with the French and Indians, at 
this period, naturally introduced persons into the coun- 
try more scientific and reliable than either the trapper 
or the trader. As early as 1648 iron and copper mines 

* Totein, or a belt of wampum, was the currency among the wild races 
before their knowledge of the use of these minerals. 



DISCOVERY AND INTRODUCTION OF ANTHRACITE COAL. 281 

were worked at Durham by the Dutch and Swedes * in 
a very limited mamier, but no mention of coal is made 
upon any map of Pennsylvania until 1770, when one 
was published by Wm. Scull, with the word " coal 
marked upon it in two places only. ^ This was m the 
vicinity of the present location of PottsviUe. 

On the 7th of May, 1792, coal pits were opened by a 
party of five persons near Machts-tschunk (Mauch 
Chunk), or Bear Mountain, where anthracite coal was 
first discovered in 1791 by a celebrated hunter, named 
Ginthner."^ 

The Indians, however, appear not to have been en- 
tirely ignorant of the nature of coal previous to 

this. ,. 

'' At Christian Spring (near Nazareth) there was hv- 
iup; about the year 1750 to '55 a gunsmith, who, upon 
application being made him by several Indians, to 
repair their rifles, replied that he was unable to comply 
immediately, 'for,' says he, 'I am entirely bare of 
charcoal, but as I am now engaged in setting some wood 
to char it, therefore you must wait several weeks. Ihis 
the Indians (having come a great distance) felt loth to 
do • they demanded a bag from the gunsmith, and 
liavincr received it, went away, and in two days returned 
with Ts much stone coal as they could well carry. They 
refused to tell where they had procured it." t 

In the Wyoming y alley, coal was first used about the 
year of 1774 by Obediah Gore, a blacksmith by trade 
who emigrated Irom Connecticut a short time previous 
and who was one of the brave defenders of Forty Fort 
at the time the British and Indians swarmed around it 

* Dutch Records. f Wm. Henry. * Mining Register. 



2S2 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

in 1778. He was afterwards an associate judge of 
Luzerne county. 

Dui'ing the later portion of the Revolutionary War, 
anthracite coal was taken down the Susquehanna River 
from Wyoming, npon rafts, purposely constructed, to 
Carlisle, where it was used in the Armory Forge. After 
the war, coal was used for smith purposes in Wilkes 
Ban-e, but all attempts to use " hlack stones " in private 
dwellings, up to this time, only brought down universal 
ridicule npon those who wished to make innovation up- 
on the old beecken wood-pile and fire. 

A bushel of coal was sent to Christian Micksch, a gun- 
smith in Nazareth, in November 1798, but after trying 
it for three or four days by repeated blowing and punch- 
ing and altering the fire in every possible manner, he 
grew so impatient at his long, fruitless efforts, that he 
indignantly threw it in the street, saying to Mr. 
Wm. Henry of whom he had purchased a bushel, " I 
can do nothing with your hlach stones^ and therefore I 
threw them out of my shop into the street ; I can't 
make them burn. If you want any work done with 
them, you may do it yourself ; everybody laughs at me 
for being such a fool as to try to make stones burn, and 
they say that you must be a fool for bringing them to 
Nazarath." ^ 

The first coal sent down the Lehigh to Philadelphia 
by the Lehigh Company, was purchased by the city au- 
thorities. A portion of this being put under the boiler 
of an engine, ver}^ provokingly " put the fire out," and 
the remiander of the coal was broken up and used for 
gravelling the streets. f 

* Wm. Henry. f Mining Register. 



283 



DISCOVERY AND INTKODrCTION OF ANTHRACITE COAL. 

The only way coal was successfully burned at that 
day, was by first pulverizing or grinding it coffee-like, 
and then sprinkling the black stuff on a blazing, wood- 

fire. -, , 

Mankind, always ready to embrace error, are slow to 
arrive at great truths. The idea of burning for .nel 
stone coal fresh from the naked hills, was so very ab- 
surd that the stooping, whitened old man, and the 
beardless youth-with all the intermediate layers ot 
life-for a long time laughed at tbe stupid joke at- 
tempted to be played upon them by the stone coal 
story. Old heads and foolish ones smiled alike m tne 
simple wisdom of their unbelief. Lectures, facts, news- 
paper paragraphs, and every effort to wake up the public 
mind upon this important subject, were all pronounced 
too dull to impose upon the wise and flinty people. 
Autumn came with its frost, and the coal grates a few 
Uberal operators in coal had caused to be placed in some 
of our inland and seaward cities reddened with coal 
heat Old men looked again on the mass glowing with 
vermiUion as it lay powerful, penetrating and silent be- 
fore them. Homeward they went again, half convinced 
and quite astonished at tlie sight. At night, <A^y were 
restless but better men. The wasted lips they had fed 
-for gold ; the naked they had clothed-for their re- 
maining silver; the wealth they had spread about them 
—for the side-aching, earned twenty per cent, ot tne 
widow, disturbed their dreams, and they ^solved to 
make amends, as they had seen that " stmes "from the 
valleys and mountains of Pennsylvania would burn it 

once ignited. . , . 

So unwilling, however, was the merit of anthmcite 
coal acknowledged by those familiar with its existence 



284: LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

— SO slow its invasions upon the green-wood pile, and 
tlie old fire-place smoked and smutty with years, that 
its introduction into general use, in the Lackawanna or 
the Wyoming — where lie the most northerly of the only 
like deposits known to America — is of quite recent 
date. 

During the earlier settlement along the Lackawanna, 
the presence of coal was known to but few ; its value to 
none. We say none^ only one exception is found. 

In 1815, there died an eminent physician and surgeon 
in Tunkhannock, who had formerly lived in the Lacka- 
wanna Yalley, and who made the first purhcase in the 
county of Luzerne, of the right to mine coal here, of 
which record evidence is furnished. This was Dr. Wm. 
Hooker Smith, who made a number of such purchases 
for a mere song, between the years of 1Y92 and 1798. 

Everything has its first. The honor, then, of first 
burning anthracite coal successfully in a common grate, 
in the county of Luzerne, belongs justly to Judge Fell, 
of Wilkes Barre, whose house stood upon the spot 
now occupied by the hotel of Hon. Geo. P. Steele. 
This was in February, 1808, only fifty years ago. He 
had a grate purposely constructed eight inches in depth, 
and in height, with legs of the same length, and the 
grate twenty-tw^o inches long. This he set in an ordinary 
fire-place, and after patient and repeated trials started a 
coal-fire The coal burning in a manner so strangely and 
yet so beautifully, without sparks, smoke, or hardly any 
flame, w^as considered an astonishing event among his 
neighbors, who flocked in noisy numbers to witness the 
phenomenon of a living coal-fire. This apparently little, 
but yet fortunate experiment, brought coal into general 
use for fall and winter fires. 



DISCOVERY AND INTKODUCTION OF ANTHRACITE COAL. 285 

Four years after this event, coal was mined in the 
Lackawanna and burned at Providence. A curious 
body of coal, so washed by the waters of the spring 
freshet, as to give prominence to its bald and blackened 
features, lying in the bed of the Lackawanna almost be- 
fore the door of H. C. L. Yan Storch, in Providence, led 
him, in the spring of 1812, to try and burn it as a sub- 
stitute for wood. His success too, was so complete, that 
although the wild region around him was one wide sea 
of tree-tops, the genius of coal was acknowledged, and 
subsequently was used even in the woods here, on the 
grounds of greater safety and economy. 

This vein of coal, the " B " or three foot one, small as it 
is, affords some of the strongest coal in the coal basin, and 
was the first strata worked and burned in the valley. 
Another interesting item associated with this vein is, 
that while that adventurous genius, William Wurts, the 
truly eminent accoiicheur of the Lackawanna Yalley, was 
impelled hither, in 1812, in search of coal; exploring 
every gap, and penetrating the loneliness of every gorge, 
came across this bare-headed and singular deposit, and, 
had it fallen into his hands by purchase as he desired, 
and as it possibly would, had it not been for the success 
of Yan Storch in burning the coal, aside from other 
revolutionary changes it would have efiected, it is 
hardly probable that Honesdale, Carbondale, Archibald, 
or Jessup would have emerged from the wildness into 
towns of such sudden and healthy growth. Kor is it to 
be supposed that Scranton itself, with its marvellous de- 
velopment, would have had any importance, or even an 
existence to-day, if, from the operation of Wurts on the 
Yan Storch property in Providence, " Wurtsdale " or 
some other town had sprung up. 



286 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 



WILLIAM WURTS EXPLORATION IN THE COAL FIELD OF 

THE LACKAWANNA CONCEPTION AND EARLY HISTORY 

OF THE DELAWARE AND HUDSON CANAL. 

The war of 1812, interrupting comraercial intercourse 
with Liverpool and Yirginia, cut oif the supplies of fuel 
from those places so completely, that charcoal rose to a 
ruinous price. To the manufacturing interests of the 
country, the consequences were, of course, highly dis- 
astrous. Men tamiliar with the nature of anthracite coal 
attempted to relieve this embarrassment if possible, by 
the introduction among manufacturers of this new kind 
of fuel. In 1814, a company of gentlemen was formed 
in Philadelphia to carry coal from the Lehigh summit 
to the city. The expense of delivering coal was so 
great ($14 per ton) that the enterprise was soon aban- 
doned. Long before the coal-heart of the Lackawanna 
began to throb, there might have been seen in the 
valley a young man of energy, nerve and ambition, who 
afterwards performed so important a part in the de- 
velopment of the coal field. This was William Wurts, 
a merchant of Philadelphia, who for a series of years 
devoted much of his time and money among the rocks 
and rattlesnakes of Luzerne county, to an enterprise, 
considered then so wild and speculative that prudent 
men dismissed it from their minds with a smile. 

His first hope, founded upon the obscure knowledge 
attainable at that early day of the contour and geologi- 
cal structure of the country, was to trace the coal up 
the valley of the Lackawanna in the direction of the 
general trend of the mountain ranges, to the Delaware 
Kiver. Obliged to resign this idea, and still retaining 



WILLIAM WURTS. 287 

in view the Delaware as tlie grand lilgliway for the 
transportation of his coal to market, his next conception 
was to reach the nearest tributary of that stream, the 
Lackawanna, running upon the opposite side of the 
Moosic Mountain. This great flinty barrier, interposing 
between the Lackawanna and Lackawaxen, did not 
deter him in his enthusiasm for this great enterprise. 

The explorations of Wurts commenced about 1812, 
and were extended by himself, and subsequently by his 
agents, over the central and northern portion of the 
valley when it was almost as rugged as when the 
Lidian turned from it to the wider hunting-grounds of 
the West. The eastern passes in the Moosic Range, viz., 
Rixes, Wagner's, and Cobb's had neither been trodden, 
with the exception of the last. These he examined, 
with a view of finding a passage from the coal places 
to the headwaters of the Lackawaxen, through whose 
waters it was supposed that coal could be carried 
towards an eastern market. 

In 1814 he selected and obtained control of some 
thousands of acres of land in different localities, appa- 
rently the best situated for the contemplated enterprise, 
the land costing at the time from fifty cents to three 
dollars per acre. Tliese purchases included the district 
where Carbondale and Archibald are located, with 
much of the intervening lands, and some a short dis- 
tance above Cobb's Gap in the vicinity of the present 
farm of James Anderson in Blakely, where in the same 
year he opened the seven and nine foot veins of coal to 
obtain specimens for exhibition in Philadelphia and 
ISTew York. 

The next important event connected with the history 
of tlie early coal operations in the valley, was an 



288 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

attempt made by Warts in the year 1815, to transport 
tlie coal he had mined here at this isolated point, to 
the Wallenpanpack or some stream leading into it. 

On the opposite side of the Moosic Range in the 
adjoining county of Wayne, threads along its base a 
narrow creek, whose black languid waters are so hid by 
the rank alders and iron-like laurel, as to be concealed 
from the view, until its marshy border is almost passed. 
This is " Jones's Creek," one of the upper and larger 
branches of the Wallenpaupack. Being only eight or 
nine miles from the coal-openings, this creek was 
chosen as one of sutiicient capacity, after the obstruc- 
tions liad been removed, to carry light rafts and a small 
quantity of coal in their downward passage. The 
whole summer of this year was spent along this creek 
by a man named loobies, in clearing it out. After the 
raft had been lashed together, two sled-loads of coal — 
the first ever taken eastward from the Lackawanna 
Valley — were carefully loaded uj^on it. 

A long heavy rain had so swollen the creek that 
when the raft swung into the current with its glistening 
freight, it ran swiftly for a distance of nearly a mile, 
when it was destroyed by a projecting rock, and the 
coal sank into the flood. Such was the result of hopes 
and efibrts in the beginning of the great coal develop- 
ment around us. 

The old Connecticut road from the Delaware to 
Wyoming in passing over Cobb's Mountain, came 
within a few miles of the two mines opened by Wurts. 
Over this, to the slackened waters of the Wallenpau- 
pack, one of the tributaries of the Lackawaxen, and 
about twenty miles distant, coal was next drawn on 
sleds by the slow ox-team. Here rafts wei-e constructed 



THE COAL FIELD OF THE LACKAWANNA. 289 

from dry pine trees, on which coal was taken as far as 
Wilsonville Falls, where this stream, narrowing to about 
seventy feet in width at the top, leaps over three conse- 
cutive ledges of rocks of fifty feet each with singular 
force and beauty. The coal being carried around these 
falls upon wagons to the eddy in the Lackawaxen, was 
reloaded into arks and taken thence to the Delaware, 
and if these were not stove up in their downward pas- 
sage reached Philadelphia, where nobody wanted the 
" black stufi/*' as all the blowing and stirring given to it 
did not make it burn. 

But little coal, and this at a ruinous expense, was 
taken over this route, and it being abandoned as a com- 
plete failure, led to operations farther up the valley in 
the wilderness, in the vicinity of Rixe's Gap. Plere we 
next find Maurice Wurts associated with his brother 
William, mining coal on the Lackawanna, at the spot 
now called Carbondale. This was in 1822, and eight 
years before the I^orth Branch Canal was put under 
contract from Nanticoke to the mouth of the Lacka- 
wanna. The scene of their operations was a bluff which 
rises upon the western side of the town, then forming 
the immediate bank of the river, whose channel has 
since been diverted. Here these determined, far-seeing 
pioneers in the coal fields kept their men at work until 
late in the fall, forming a sort of encampment in the 
woods, sleeping on hemlock boughs and leaves before a 
large camp-fire, and transporting their provisions for 
miles upon hoi-seback. The mine was kept free from 
water by a rude pumping apparatus moved by the cur- 
rent of the river, and when the accumulation of ice 
upon it obstructed its movements, a large grate made 
oi' nail-rods was put in blast, in which a fire of coal was 

13 



290 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

continually kept burning and removing the difficulty. 
In this laborious manner, they succeeded at great 
expense in taking out about eight hundred tons of coal, 
which they intended to have drawn upon sledges 
over the mountain through Rixe's Gap to the Lacka- 
waxen during the winter, in order to be floated down 
through the Delaware to Philadelphia in the spring. 
The winter, however, proving unusually mild, snow 
remaining on the ground but a few weeks, in heavy 
drifts, only about one hundred tons were thus drawn 
over the forbidding range. 

Instead of arks, which were found to be too expensive 
and too easily stove in their downward passage, dry 
pine trees were cut and rolled into the stream raft-like, 
upon which as much coal as they would safely float 
was deposited, and thus taken to Philadelphia down the 
Lackawaxen and Delaware. 

The price of anthracite coal in this city, at this time, 
was from ten to twelve dollars per ton, and as it was 
estimated by our projectors, that at these prices a remu- 
nerative profit would be made upon coal transported in 
this manner, or even in the frail arks, provided the na- 
vigation of the Lackawaxen was made safe by slack- 
water improvements, which they judged to be entirely 
practicable. 

In 1823, Maurice Wurts, the elder brother, was 
authorized and empowered by the Legislature of Penn- 
sylvania thus to improve the navigation of this wild 
stream. In the meantime the supply of coal from the 
earlier worked Leehaw or Lehigh region had so reduced 
the price as to preclude any hope of a profit snch as 
would justify the expenditure, unless anothei and 8 
better market could first be found. 



THE DELAWARE AND HUDSON CANAL. 291 

The demand for coal, at this time, can be partly esti- 
mated from the fact that during the year of 1820 only 
365 tons of anthracite were sent to market from the Le- 
high — the only place in Pennsylvania where coal was 
mined. 

In 1823, only 6,000 tons of this kind of coal was sent 
to the sea-board in the whole United States ; being less 
than the amount used now in the Lackawanna Valley 
alone, every week in the year. 

It was now that the first conception of that great ar- 
tery eastward from the Lackawanna began to take 
shape. The original plan thus being frustrated by the 
reduced price of coal, Maurice Wurts, in whom the pri- 
vilege of improving the navigation of the Lackawaxen 
was vested, and who had now become largely interested 
in the enterprise, conceived the project of reaching the 
I^ew Yorh market by a direct canal communication be- 
tween the Delaware and Hudson rivers. With the 
hope of accomplishing tliis object, the exploration of the 
route on which the Delaware and Hudson Canal has 
since been constructed, was undertaken by William 
AVurts alone, and, after such a superficial inspection as 
he could give it, without an actual survey, he came to 
the conclusion that the favorable character of the 
ground and the abundant supply of water would justify 
the prosecution of the enterprise. 

This conclusion having been reached, this new, deep 
project, assumed a distinct and definite form, and al- 
though there seemed to have been no just appreciation 
of the difficulties to be surmounted of the physical labor 
and expense which would be incurred in carrying it for- 
ward, the Messrs. Wurts determined to bend all their 
energies to its completion. 



292 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

The needful Legislation from the respective States of 
Pennsylvania and New York was obtained by their un- 
aided efforts, and after an abortive attempt to interest 
residents upon the route, or those living in the valley, 
so as to obtain a general fund for the preliminary sur- 
vey, they engaged Benjamin Wright, then the most ex- 
perienced engineer in the country, to make the neces- 
sary surveys and estimate at their expense. 

The report of the engineer, made in 1824, confirmed 
the most sanguine calculations of the projectors as to 
the j)racticability of the work ; but the estimate of its 
cost ($1,300,000) was discouraging, and to obtain sub- 
scriptions for such an amount of money, at that time, 
for such a work, seemed almost hopeless. Capitalists 
naturally viewed with distrust a proposition to construct 
a railroad over a mountain, whose cliffs, high and sharply 
defined, seemed to exult over physical ingenuity and 
science, and when these energetic men began to talk of 
opening a canal navigation through an unknown region, 
at a period, too, when such undertakings were regarded 
even under the most favorable circumstances as unremu- 
nerative, many of their friends even questioned the 
soundness of their minds. 

Happily for the cause of internal improvement, hap- 
pily for the life-like development along the minted 
Lackawanna, where gloom and silence had reigned so 
long and so supreme, the far reaching foresight in which 
the work owed its inception, was accompanied by the 
energy, skill, and perseverance requisite for its prosecu- 
tion to a favorable issue. 

It would seem that at this stage in their progress the 
Messrs. Wurts were obliged to settle the question 
whether they would abandon the enterprise and consent 



THE DELAWARE AND HUDSON CANAL. 293 

to be classed among visionary schemers, or directing all 
their abilities to its prosecution, vindicate the wisdom 
which had conceived it, and demonstrate its value and 
importance to the valley and the county by its rapid 
completion. Conscious that their money and reputation 
were alike involved in the work so as to identify them 
alike with its failure or success, in the view of the com- 
munity, they appear to have determined that no inter- 
posing obstacle should discourage nor prevent their yet 
thankless efforts. 

Their plans were soon matured ; the Moosic Mountain 
to be crossed by inclined planes, and the railroad* and 
canal brought into connection on its eastern side at the 
greatest elevation at which water could be obtained to 
feed the latter.f 

To carry out this plan it was proposed that subscrip- 
tions should be opened for a capital stock of $1,500,000, 
and the Delaware and Hudson Canal and Banking 
Company be organized. 

The undertaking was greatly in advance of the know- 
ledge and comprehension of the day, but so persevering 
and effective were the efforts of Maurice and William 
Wurts to circulate facts, to correct misrepresentations 
and refute falsehoods, that when the books were opened 

* The railroad is sixteen miles long over the mountain, eight hundred 
and fifty feet above the Lackawanna. 

f It may be interesting to the local reader to learn that in the origi- 
nal survey of the proposed route, the western terminus of the canal was 
to be at Keenes', or Hoadley's Pond, in Wayne county, a distance of 
only four or five miles from the coal fields. These ponds, estimated at a 
capacity of sixty acres, when united, were to be converted into reser- 
voirs, and were supposed to be capable of furnishing the contemplated 
canal with the necessary supply of water at any extraordinary drought 
brought by summer. 



294 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

in New York the subscriptions greatly exceeded the 
amount authorized by the charter. 

Coal grates and stoves, adapted to the use of anthra- 
cite coal, being put up in J^ew York and Philadelphia 
by the agency of these untiring men about this time, 
not only demonstrated at once to the beholder, the great 
superiority of the Lackawanna coal over charcoal and 
wood, which was being swept from the country with 
frightful waste and rapidity, but attracted to the project, 
in spite of strong-prejudices, increasing circles of friends. 

The canal was commenced in 1826, and completed in 
1828. Originally constructed for boats of thirty tons, 
it subsequently was enlarged for those of fifty tons, and 
within the past few years has again been so altered and 
improved as to admit boats of one hundred and thirty 
tons. The arrangements of this prosperous company 
have been judiciously made at different points, such as 
Carbondale, Honesdale, etc., for the accommodation of 
an extensive business. Their capital now exceeds 
seven millions of dollars. 

To show how far the results of this pioneer enterprise 
from the valley have transcended the narrow views of 
the community of that recent period, both with regard 
to its capabilities and the use of coal, it may be stated, 
that the idea of transporting one hundred thousand 
tons of coal jper annum over the railroad and canal 
(upon which idea the capacity of the former was at first 
based) was scouted by many as extravagant and pre- 
posterous, as regards both the disposal of, and the ability 
to deliver such an unheard-of amount, whereas, during 
the last year (1856) there was transported over this 
canal by the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company 
more than one million tons of coal. 



THE DELAWARE AND HUDSON CANAL. 295 

When this grand work was weak and comparatively 
orphaned in its infancy, it did not escape the jealousy 
of others interested in the transportation of coal to 
market. Unfortunately for the Company, the small 
quantity of coal it took to market in 1829, being sur- 
face coal that had lain for ages exposed to the action of 
the elements, furnished plausible grounds apparently 
for the statements of rival companies, that the Lacka- 
wanna coal offered by the Wurts was quite valueless, 
or if otherwise, it was boldly asserted that the works of 
this Company were so imperfect in their construction, 
and so perishable in character, as not to be capable of 
passing a sufficient amount of tonnage to pay interest 
upon the original cost. 

Indeed, to those who looked searchingly into the 
matter, with the imperfect knowledge possessed at that 
day, the Moosic Mountain range might well have 
proved a great stumbling-block in the way of this arti- 
licial outlet to the valley. Habit has now so fami- 
liarized us with the triumph of physical science over 
natural obstacles, that we have ceased to feel or express 
astonishment at results, which at that day were dis- 
missed from the consideration of rational men as vision- 
ary, foolish, and forbidding. The mode of overcoming 
elevations by means of inclined planes was then almost 
untried, imperfectly known, and little appreciated. 
The works at Kixes' Gap were the first of tbis kind pro- 
jected in this country on any considerable scale. 
Much credit is due to the engineers having charge of 
these works, and especially to Mr. James Archibald 
for many ingenious and highly efficient contrivances 
connected with them. 

There is one interesting feature connected with the 



296 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

early history of this road. The first locomotive engine 
in America was first run on it in 1828. The engine 
was purchased in England by this Company, with a 
view of using it upon the first level of this road in the 
place of horse power. 

ITonesdale, the eastern terminus of the raih-oad and 
the western of the canal, lies snugly in the botton of a 
basin-like glen, where, a week before the conception of 
these works, rose one dark, gnarled mass of high laurel 
and hemlock, through which the Lackawaxen — famous 
for its fine trout fishing — after meeting with the waters 
of the Dyberry, gropes silently along. 

The road passed out of Honesdale by a sharp south- 
westerly curve, with a moderate grade, and was carried 
over the Lackawaxen by a hemlock tresselling, consi- 
dered then too frail by many to support the great 
weight of the mysterious-looking engine. As the crowd 
expected that bridge, locomotive, and all would plunge 
into the stream the moment passage was attempted, no 
one dared run the locomotive across but Major Horatio 
Allen, who passed over the bridge and a portion of the 
road in safety. The engine, however, was soon aban- 
doned, as the slender tresselling forming much of the 
road, although sufiiciently strong for ordinary cars, was 
found to be too feeble for its superior weight and wear. 

This singular, yet venerable machine, instead of being 
preserved as an interesting relic in some appropriate 
place, as it should be, lies along the railroad, broken, 
neglected, and unobserved. 

It might have been supposed that when the authors 
of this great work had shown its operations to be prac- 
tical ; when, by long expenditure of means, time, and 
labors the most exhausting, their enterprise was com- 



THE DELAWARE AND HUDSON CANAL. 297 

pleted, their physical efforts and mental anxieties would 
have been rewarded with both respite and profit ; but 
it would seem from subsequent events that their labors 
had just begun. The cost of this outlet from the val- 
ley had greatly exceeded the estimate, and a large debt 
had thus been necessarily contracted in its progress. 
The market for coal was so small that little supplied 
the demand, and while the resources of the Company 
were yet undeveloped, financial diflaculties accumulated 
with terrible weight. 

The Messrs. Wurts probably again felt that their re- 
putation was in some degree involved in its fate, for Mr. 
Maurice Wurts (who had superintended the caual dur- 
ing its construction, and resigned his ofiice when it was 
completed), in this exigency, undertook the superinten- 
dence of an important department of the Company's 
business, while his brother, Mr. John Wurts, then a pro- 
minent member of Congress, and of the Philadelphia 
bar, assumed the presidency. They have devoted their 
lives to the promotion of the Company's interest, and 
the proud, high, and firm position it has attained, is 
mainly due to the anxious care, and laborious industry 
with which its affairs have been conducted through ac- 
cumulated difiiculties, by these men, during a series of 
years. 

I^ot only have financial dangers of a formidable char- 
acter threatened the existence of a company whose 
operations in the coal basin awoke the valley from its 
long sleep, but legislative bodies have been moved by 
the levers of personal jealousy and fancied rivalship to 
crush it ; and this too at the instigation of men who, 
for their private fortunes, and social positions in life, 
w^ere indebted solely to the very operations they were 

13^ ' 



298 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

now seeking to arrest. The hollow, absurd cry of mo- 
nopoly has been raised against it, and this, too, at a 
time when the shares originally costing $100 each, had 
been for six or seven years on the hands of the stock- 
holders without yielding a single dividend, and had there- 
fore in effect, cost about $140 per share, and could actu- 
ally be bought in the market at the time, for from $60 
to $70 per share, or half what it had already cost. 

The benefits which have arisen out of this under- 
taking, the general and generating influences it has 
exerted in the Lackawanna Yalley, are various in kind 
and character, and are difi'used over a wide region of 
country, as well as concentrated in special localities. 
Prominent among these special localities, may be named 
New York City, and the Lackawanna Valley. Who 
can estimate the magnitude of the impulse which the 
introduction of cheap fuel has given to the growth of 
New York ? To this great outlet, conceived and ma- 
tured by Maurice and William Wurts, is this great city 
indebted, for the cheapening and supply of this desira- 
ble and indispensable fuel. This history of the com- 
pany struggling for many years through appalling diffi- 
culties, indicates that even here, neither the benefits, 
nor instrnmentality by which it was attained, were 
appreciated by the many recipients. But no estimate 
can be made of the power which a work like this exer- 
cises over the aff'airs of a nation, in encouraging private 
and stimulating public eff'orts for internal improvements. 

The success of this enterprise, while it directed the 
attention of thinking men to portions of the country 
before obscure and remote, has also indirectly given 
birth to other arteries now pulsating eastward and west- 
ward from the valley, with its rich, black deposit. 



THE PENNSYLVANIA COAL COMPANY. 299 

The material benefits thus conferred upon the Lacka- 
wanna Yalley, may be soon and safely estimated by 
simply comparing the average value of coal land and 
property now and hefore the operations of this great 
work were exhibited. To enumerate the numerous be- 
neficiaries of this company, it is only necessary to point 
along the canal and rail road, and at each respective 
terminus. 

THE PENNSYLVANIA COAL COMPANY. 

The second Railroad operating in the Lackawanna 
YaJley was the one belonging to this Company. After 
the Delaware and Hudson Canal and Railroad had be- 
come a fixed fact, and they began to introduce their use- 
fulness to the country in such a quiet, but impressive 
manner, the attention of capitalists was naturally 
directed towards the Lackawanna coal basin. 

The first to obtain charters for railroads in, or from 
the Lackawanna Yalley after Wurts, were Meredith 
and Drinker ; but the absence of the necessary capital 
rendered their efforts and charters of little or no practi- 
cal value at the time. 

In the winter of 1838, the Legislature of Pennsyl- 
vania passed an act incorporating the Pennsylvania 
Coal Company, with a capital of $200,000. This road 
was to connect Pittston with the Delaware and Hudson 
Canal, at some point on the Lackawaxen, below Hones- 
dale. James W. Johnson, R. D. Lathrop, C. D. Pier- 
son, Lewis S. Watres, M. Curtis, and Charles Fuller, 
were the Commissioners appointed under this act, who 
organized the Company, in the spring of 1839, and com- 
menced operations in Pittston. After mining a small 



300 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

quantity of coal from their lands — of which they were 
allowed to hold one thousand acres — it was taken down 
the North Branch Canal, finding a market at Har- 
risburg, and other towns bordering on the Susque- 
hanna. 

Simultaneously with this charter, was another granted 
to the Washington Coal Company, with a capital of 
$300,000, and allowed to hold two thousand acres of 
lands in the valley. After the commissioners had 
dreamed over their charter for a period of nine years, 
they sold and assigned it in 1847, to William and 
Charles Wurts, and others, of Philadelphia. 

Over the Moosic or Cobb Mountain, skirting along 
the eastern edge of the Lackawanna with such a grace- 
ful sweep, and forbidding intercouree with the Delaware 
or any of its tributaries, no one yet had sufiicient bold- 
ness to think of crossing its untamed summit with a 
railroad^ until this last named charter came under the 
jurisdiction of Wurts and his resolute associates, al- 
though it was thought practicable at one time to construct 
a canal over the mountain to the Lackawaxen, which 
was to be supplied with water from Cobb's Pond, a 
little sheet of water giving a quiet beauty to the sum- 
mit. 

Two years previous to this, the first impulse or excite- 
ment in coal lands began in the valley. In many of 
the townships bordering on the Lackawanna, large pur- 
chases of coal property were made for a few gentle- 
men of Philadelphia, who had reconnoitered the harsh 
features of the country, with a view of constructing a 
coal road from these lands to some eligible point upon 
the Delaware and Hudson Canal, near the mouth of the 
P9,upack. 



THE PENNSYLVANIA COAL COMPANY. 301 

Hardly had the preliminary surveys upon the pro- 
posed route commenced, before there sprang up along 
that portion of the territory through wliich the road 
was to pass, opposition of so formidable a character, 
that it amazes those who look back only through a 
period of ten years. Men, whose opposition had before 
seriously annoyed, if not actually embarrassed, the Com- 
pany mining coal at Carbondale during its infant help- 
lessness, found scope here for their remaining malignity. 
The most plausible ingenuity was employed to defeat 
the entrance into the valley of a road whose operations 
along its border could not fail to inspire with com- 
mercial life a region before so dozy and obscure. Meet- 
ing after meeting was held at disaffected points, having 
for their object the defeat of the very measures which, 
when once matured, were calculated to result to the 
advantage of the very ones opposing. It was urged, 
with no little force, that if these Philadelphians were 
allowed to make a railroad through Cobb's Gap, the 
only natural key or outlet eastward from the valley, the 
rich deposits of coal and iron yet remaining in the hands 
of the settlers would be locked in and rendered useless 
forever. 

After much unnecessary and embittered excitement 
in Providence and Blakely, in regard to the entrance 
into the valley of this lonely coal road, those amicable 
relations, which have since existed with the country, 
commenced.* 

The Legislature of Pennsylvania, at its sessions in 
1846, passed an " act incorporating the Luzerne and 

* If truth was not severe aswell as libellous, the secret history of trans- 
actions connected with this road could be written in safety, and read with 
astonishment. 



302 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

Wayne Kailroad Company, with a capital stock of 
$500,000, with authority to construct a road from the 
Lackawaxen to the Lackawanna." 

Before this Company was organized, however, its 
charter and that of the Washington Company being 
purchased, w^ere merged into the Pennsylvania Coal 
Company, by an act of the Legislature passed in 1849. 

The road was commenced in 1848, and completed in 
1850. It is forty -five miles in length, passing with a single 
track from the coal mines on the Susquehanna at Pittston, 
to those lying near Cobb's Gap, terminating at the Dela- 
ware and Hudson Canal, at the spirited village of Haw- 
ley. It is worked at moderate expense, and in the most 
simple manner for a profitable coal road — the cars being 
drawn up the mountain by a series of stationary steam- 
engines and planes, and then allowed to run by their 
own weight at a rate of ten or twelve miles an hour, 
down a grade sufficiently descending to give the proper 
momentum to the train. The movement of the cars is 
so easy, that there is but little wear along the iron path- 
way, while the too rapid speed is checked by the slight 
application of brakes. No railroad leading in the val- 
ley makes less noise ; none does so really a remunerative 
business, earning over 10 per cent, on its capital at the 
present low prices of coal ; thus illustrating not only the 
great superiority of a " gravity road " for the cheap 
transportation of coal in this portion of country, but 
afi'ording abundant evidence that the general manage- 
ment of the road by its superintendent, J. B. Smith, is 
eminently j udicious and able. The ingenious applica- 
tion of steam power and planes upon this road is due to 
the genius of James Archibald. Capital of this Com- 
pany about $3,000,000. 



THE PENNSYLVANIA COAL COMPANY'S ROAD. 303 



TRIP OYER THE PENNSYLVANIA COAL COMPANy's ROAD. 

Reader ! you have read enough just now, so jump 
on the cars generous with grease, and ebony with coal- 
dirt, and ride to Hawley. The scenery along the road, 
varied as it is, will present as much to interest as the 
history of the road. Stand upon the car in front, for 
there are no bullets nor battles ahead, and you soon 
feel the big rope, massive with tar and hemp, pulling 
you rapidly up plane No. 3 at Pittston. Turning your 
eye westward and northward from the head of the 
plain, and the landscape of Wyoming Yalley, like the 
vale of Chamouni, spreads out before you with all the 
variety of river, meadow, and mountain, made classic 
with soDg and carnival with blood. The Susque- 
hanna flows along, equalled only in beauty by the 
Khine, through a region interesting for its Indian his- 
tory — its lore and legend — the great massacre along the 
fertile plain, and the early sanguinary conflict between 
the Yankees and Pennymites, nearly ninety years ago. 
The cars, freighted with coal, move their spider feet 
towards Hawley. Slow at first you move around curves, 
then, life coming to the train, over woodland, water, 
and ravine you oscillate upon the long, snaky train. 
Emerging now and then from deep cuts or dense woods, 
possessing no sort of interest, you pass along up the 
southern border of the Lackawanna Yalley. Crossing 
Spring Brook upon a hemlock tresselling, which is here 
thrown across the stream and ravine for a quarter of a 
mile, the cars slacken as they enter the sharp rock cut 
at the foot of the next plain. While looking upon the 
chiselled precipice all around, mixed with a feeling of 



304: LACKAWAl^NA VALLEY. 

cheapness, as the eye is turned to the right or the left, 
to discover some egress to this apparent cavern^ the 
buzz of the pulley comes from the plane and through 
the granite passage, deep and jaw-like, you are drawn 
to a height where the glance of the surrounding woods is 
interrupted by the sudden manner in w^hich you are 
drawn into the very top of engine-house, No. 4. 

The Lybian desert, once juiced with Eoman blood, 
furnishes even to-day in the lonely desolation of its 
sands, more to admire than the scenery along the level 
intervening betwen 'No. 4 and 5. Groups of rock, wild, 
crusted and ragged with age, lie on every side, and now 
and then tower around you like old pyramids of the 
East ; trees grow dw^arfed and strange, as if they were 
ashamed of their situation, and only here and there a 
tuft of wild grass infringes upon tlie solitary sameness 
of the scene. The babbling of a mellow trout brook at 
the foot of No. 5 — the sweetest of all music — is all that 
falls pleasantly upon the ear along this entire level. 
Up the bold hill rolls the cars, bringing the country 
north and eastward before you on a scale of refreshing 
magnificence. In fact, the features of the scenery be- 
come more broad and picturesque. The Moosic range 
skirting along upon either side of the valley, and so 
completely robed with forest to their very summits as 
to present two great weaves of silent tree-tops, encircle 
completely the old Indian clearing of Capouse. As 
you look down into this deep amphitheatre, breathing 
with commercial and village life, and now and then 
catch a glimpse of the Le-haw-hanna of the Indian, as 
it gives a deeper shade to the flats where but eighty -six 
years ago, rose the slender wigwam of the warrior, it 
awakens astonishment and pride. In fact, the whole 



prospect seems like a picture framed by the mountains. 
The immediate scenery along this level is dull and 
coarse, while the view from it for almost its entire dis- 
tance is one of quiet and singular beauty. 

At No. 6, upon the northern bank of the Eoariug 
Brools:, are located the most eastern mines of this Com- 
pany, being those which are situated the nearest to 
New York city. These consist of a series of coal de- 
posits, varied in purity, thickness and value, but all 
profitably worked. The largest vein of coal mined 
here is full eight feet thick, and is the highest coal 
mined on the hill northwest of plane No. 6. 

Upon the opposite range of the Moosic Mountain, in 
the vicinity of Leggett's Gap, this same stratum of coal 
is worked by other companies. Each acre of coal thus 
mined from this single vein yields about 10,000 tons of 
good merchantable coal. 

The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad 
crosses that of the Pennsylvania at No. 6, giving a little 
interest to the most sterile rocks and soil in the world. 
No. 6 is a colony by itself. It is one of those hu- 
manized points, without a pleasant feature of its own, 
and which in its primitive formation, escaped every 
smile of Nature. On each side of the track of the 
road, the ground, or rock is covered with wretched 
shanties of a kennel size, and a pig-stye cleanliness, the 
tenants of which you soon learn by the rich brogue issuing 
from them ; a few respectable looking houses stand in the 
background, and the offices and workshops of the Com- 
pany located on the northern edge of the brook. About 
fifty years ago, a saw-mill, erected here in the woods by 
Stephen Tripp, was the only mark to be seen in the 
laurelled jungle, until the survey of this Company. This 



306 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

jungle was more formidable from the fact, that during 
the early settlement of the valley it was the retreat of 
hordes of wolves. Over this savage nook, industry has 
triumphed, and imparted a little life to a point appar- 
ently consigned to eternal barrenness by the Power once 
frowning upon it. At the head of No. 6, stand the great 
screens for preparing the finer quality of coal, operated 
by steam power. The Lackawanna railroad running 
from Jessup to Throopville, a distance of nine miles, 
crosses the Pennsylvania road at this point. 

Up the mountain slope, plane after plane, you ascend 
along the old Connecticut road and Indian path, having 
a prospect so wide and welcome as you turn westward, 
that for a moment you forget that in the streets else- 
where, you meet so many bodies wanting souls. 

Down the mountain side, over ledge and tree, the eye 
wanders. Yonder in the bit of green sward, nestles the 
village of Dunmore, with its few tasty dwellings and its 
many barrelled shanties. Scran ton, Hyde Park, Pro- 
vidence, and smaller village-buds are seen beyond, and 
farther still, the Moosic range with its round, plump 
breasts sloping gently down into the valley, where long- 
lines of pasturage, spotted with the drowsy herd, and 
the red, long-necked chimneys looking from the coal 
works, give it a beauty contrasting strangely with the 
bleak summit of Cobb's Mountain, as it rises here over 
one thousand feet above tide water. The tunnel is be- 
fore you, and you roll through its midnight mouth, where 
the cool air of underground comes' in a grateful flood 
upon the brain. Passing over a mile or two of barrens, 
a few farms are seen, which in spite of the many dis- 
advantages of cold, high soil, seem to be tolerably pro- 
ductive. From the tunnel to Hawley, the intervening 



THE PENNSYLVANIA COAL COMPANy's EOAD. 307 

country along this road partakes much of the hilly as- 
pect of northern Pennsylvania, diversiiied by cross-roads, 
clearings, farm-houses and streams. Here and there, a 
loose-tongued torrent plays bass and tenor with the 
revolving car-wheel, as it hums along some shady glen, 
and farther along, the narrow cut like the Sea of Old, 
opens for your passage. Down an easy grade, among 
tall old beechen forests, you roll at a speed of twelve 
miles an hour over a distance of some thirty miles from 
the tunnel, when, turning sharply around the base of a 
round, steep hill to the left, you land in Hawley, a 
new settlement which commenced with the construction 
of the railroad, and already has it expanded into a vil- 
lage of some beauty, and a good deal of consequence 
to the employees of the road, and to the boatmen who 
here load their boats with coal. 

A little distance below the village, the Wallenpau- 
pack, after taking one grand leap of 150 feet over the 
broken rock, becomes drowsy in the bosom of the eddy 
below and unites with the swifter Lackawaxen, forming 
a respectable sized stream, down whose waters coal was 
orio-inally taken from the Lackawanna Yalley in arks to 
the Delaware by Wurts. It is fourteen miles to Lacka- 
waxen upon the Delaware, where, in 1779— one year 
after the Wyoming massacre— a bloody engagement 
took place between John Brant, the famous chief of the 
Six Nations and ally of the British, and some 400 
Orange county militia. 

The Tories and Indians had burned the town of 
Minisink, ten miles west of Goshen, scalping and tortur- 
ing those who could not escape from the tomahawk by 
flight. Being themselves pursued by some raw militia, 
hastily gathered from the neighborhood for the purpose, 



308 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

they retreated to the mouth of the Lackawaxen. Here 
Brant with his followers formed an ambuscade. The 
whites, burning to avenge the invaders of their fire- 
sides, incautiously rushed on after the fleeing savages, 
ignorant or forgetting the wily character of their foe. 
As the troops were rising over a hill covered with trees, 
and had become completely encircled in the fatal ring, 
hundreds of savages poured in upon them such a merci- 
less fire, accompanied with the fearful war-whoop, that 
they were at once thrown into terrible confusion. 
Every savage was stationed behind the trunk of some 
tree or rock which shielded him from the bullets of the 
militia. For half an hour the unequal conflict raged 
with increasing fury, the blaze of the guns flashing 
through the gloom of the day, as feebler and faster 
fell the little band. At length, half of their number 
were either slain or so shattered by the bullets as to be 
mere marks for the sharp-shooters that the remainder 
threw away their guns and fled, but so closely were 
they in return pursued by the exultant enemy that only 
thirty out of the entire body escaped to tell the sad 
story of defeat. Many of these reached their homes 
with fractured bones and fatal wounds. The remains 
of those who had fallen at this time were gathered in 
1822 and deposited in a suitable place and manner by 
the Goshenites. 

The Pennsylvania Coal Company contemplate a con- 
nection of their road with the Erie, in the vicinity of 
this old battle ground. This will dispense with the use 
of boats by them upon the canal, while the wholesome 
impulse it cannot fail to impart to that dishonored 
father of railroads — the Erie — will be mighty indeed, 
as about one million tons of coal will be taken over it 



THE PENNSYLVANIA COAL COMPANY'S KOAD. 309 

per year, finding a market at Newbnrg, Piermont, and 

'^ A^ Hawley the coal is now unloaded from the cars 
into boats upon the Delaware and Hudson Canal, ot 
which 612,500 tons from the Lackawanna was carried 
over last year (1856) at a net profit to the Company of 
1*320 913 60. Once emptied, the cars return to Dim- 
fnore or Pittston, upon' another and a lighter track 
where the grade is much heavier as the cars generally 

return empty. 

Seated in the "Pioneer," a rude passenger concern 
which looses some of the repulsive character of the 
coal car in its plain pine seats and, arched root, you rise 
abruptly up the plane from the Lackawaxen Creek a 
considerable distance before entering a series of ndges 
or^^ged, scrub-oak land, as barren of interest as they 
were of vilue until this road by its various manipula- 
tions gave signs of life to hills singularly woeful and 
uselesf. A few half-starved sheep and gaunt cows are 
seen grazing npon the scanty herbage, and now and 
hen a dark log cabin, its broken windows reddened by 
be petticoat protruding from the sashless aperture, 
stands in a lonely patch inclosed for potatoes or cab- 
ie Leaving Palmyra township, this barrenness 
dslppears in a great measure as I^u enter he nche 
rolling uplands of Salem, where an occasional farm is 
observed of natural fertility, but where the accompany- 
ing houses, barns, and fences, show great contempt for 
wlven's first law. About one mile from the road 
Sto amonj some quiet hills the village of Holhster- 
V lie It lief on a branch of the Wallenpaupack about 
len miles above the old "Lackawa" colony Amasa 
- HoLLisTEK, with his three sons, Alanson, Alpheus, and 



310 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

"Wesley, emigrated from Hartford, Connecticut, to this 
place in 1814, when the hunter and the trapper only 
were familar with the unpeopled forest. Many of the 
social comforts of the village, and much of the rigid 
morality of New England character can be traced to 
these pioneers. Up Ko. 21 you rise, and then roll 
towards the valley. The deepest and greatest gap east- 
ward from the Lackawanna is Cobb's, through which 
flows the Roaring Brook. This shallow brook, from some 
cause, appears to have lost much of its ancient size as it 
breaks through the picturesque gorge with shrunken 
volume to find its way into the Lackawanna at Scranton, 
three miles below. The gap itself is one of unusual 
wildness, and, although somewhat subdued by the inge- 
nious applications of man, it yet possesses much of its 
original grandeur. Contemporaneous with the general 
disturbance in the great Alleghany basin, this opening 
was probably fractured from the mountain by the same 
superior agency which here elevated, and there de- 
pressed ranges. In fact, like the magnificent Delaware 
Water Gap, it seems to have been the margin of one of 
the lesser or larger lakes covering the country at some 
period. Emerging from the heavy wooded upland, you 
catch the first glimpse of a long, colossal ledge of 
rocks, rising vertically almost 3,000 feet, curving with 
such a graceful sweep as to remind one of the power 
which once swept its sides of their sterner features. Its 
high, grey, impressive face reminds one of the palisades 
along the noble Hudson. As you approach it, the huge 
mountain flank appears to defy farther progress, when 
the cars with a sudden bend to the left, wind the train 
away from the apparent danger, and you move down 
the narrow gateway deeper and deeper into the sur- 



311 

rounding solitude, where the rocks, broken a thousand 
centuries ago, lay in gloomy masses on every side. 
The strong-limbed hemlock assumes the mastery of the 
forest along the brook whose waters whiten as they pour 
over precipice after precipice into the blacker pools, 
whicli only a few years ago were so alive with trout, 
that, fishing half an hour with a single pole and line in 
any one of them, supplied the w^ants of a family for a 
day with this delicious fish. In the wildest portion of 
the gap the cars pass along on a mere shelf cut from 
the rock nearly a hundred feet up from the brook, 
where the Moosic Mountain rises up and hangs over 
your head as once hung the sword over the ancient 
tyrant. Directly opposite the narrowest portion of the 
gorge, lies on a rugged slope of the mountain, the 
village of Throopville or Greenville, which in the hands 
of its generous owner. Dr. B. H. Throop, does a snug 
little business in the way of lumbering. The Lacka- 
wanna railroad terminates here. 

Cobb's Gap, the great jpiloTic orifice through the 
Moosic range so rudely formed by some stern force, 
the period or nature of which must ever remain a mys- 
tery to man ; once forbidding passage to the Indian's 
frail canoe or the lonely hunter, now illustrates the 
triumph of art over great natural obstacles. The 
Roaring Brook, a wagon road, and tliTee difi'erent rail- 
roads find ample passage through it now. 

A ride of about an hour, at moderate speed, along the 
western slope of the mountain hugging the Lackawanna 
brings you again to Pittston, where, after passing 
twenty-two stationary steam engines and planes upon 
the road, you gladly take leave of its coarser hospita- 
lities. 



312 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

HISTORICAL SUMMARY OF THE SUSQUEHANNA AND DELAWARE 

CANAL AND RAILROAD COMPANY (" DRINKEr's ROAd") 

THE LEGGETT GAP RAILROAD THE DELAWARE AND COBb's 

GAP RAILROAD • COMPANY, NOW THE DELAWARE, LACKA- 
WANNA AND WESTERN RAILROAD. 

Imperfect and so little as was tlie value or even tlie 
existence of anthracite coal generally understood through- 
out the country thirty years ago, new and extensive 
bodies of it being discovered in the valley by those who 
were exploring, the grand idea was conceived by Henry 
W. Drinker, of connecting the Susquehanna Kiver at 
Pittston, with the Delaware River at the Water Gap, 
by a railroad, operated by hydraulic instead of steam 
power, running up the Lackawanua to the mouth of the 
Roaring Brook, thence up that noisy stream along its 
blackened sides to Lake Henry, and crossing the head 
waters of the Lehigh upon the swampy table land, which 
forms the dividing ridge between the Susquehanna and 
Delaware River, and down the Pocono, one of its lesser 
tributaries, through Stroudsburg and along the main 
stream to the Delaware Water Gap at Dutotsburg. 
This was as early as 1819, but, although no instrumental 
survey of the contemplated route, which lay over moun- 
tains and ravines and through lonely defiles, was made 
until eleven years later, a superficial examination of the 
country by Drinker, satisfied him that the intersecting 
line of communication was not only feasible, but must 
necessarily result to the advantage of all who should 
become interested in the enterprise. At the session of 
the Legislature in 1826, he obtained an act of incorpo- 
ration of the "Susquehanna and Delaware Canal and 
Railroad Company," by the assistance of George M. 



HISTOKICAL SUMMARY OF RAILROAD CO's. bl3 

Hollenbacli of the House of Representatives, and Geo. 
K. Baker, a senator from Philadelphia. 

The Commissioners were David Scott, Henry W. 
Drinker, John Coolbaugh, James N. Porter, Daniel 
Stroud, William Henry, A. E. Brown, S. Stokes, and 
Jacob D. Stroud. 

Among the very few persons in Pennsylvania who 
saw at a glance the importance of a route, so boldly and 
so wisely conceived, and who in 1830 became warmly 
interested in its favor, was a man to whom, more than 
to any one else, the old Indian Capouse region around 
Slocmn Hollow is indebted to-day for the exchange of its 
ruggedness, for the present village of Scranton — Wil- 
liam Henry. 

Two of the most indefatigable and energetic members 
of the Board, were Henry and Drinker. 

In this year a subscription of a few hundred dollars 
was obtained from the Commissioners, and in May, 1831, 
Mr. Henry, in accordance with the wishes of the Board, 
engaged Major Ephraim Beach, C.E., to run a prelim- 
inary line of survey over the intervening country. 

By reference to the old report of Major Beach, it will 
be seen that the present line of the southern division of 
the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Eailroad is, in 
the main, much the same as that run by him at this time. 
Seventy miles in length the road was to be made, at a 
total estimated cost of $624,720. 336 wagons (cars,) 
capable of carryitig over the road 240,000 tons of coal 
per year, were to be employed. 

Coal at this time was worth $9 per ton in E"ew York, 
while coal lands in the valley could be bought at prices 
varying from $10 to $20 per acre. 

It was not supposed by the Commissioners that the 
14 



314 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

coal trade alone could make this road one so profitable, 
but it was originally their object to connect the two at 
these points, so as to participate in the trade upon the 
Susquehanna. For the return business it was thought 
that '' iron in bars, pig and castings, would be sent from 
the borders of the Delaware in Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey, and that lime-stone in great quantities would be 
transported from the same district and burned in tlie 
coal region, where fuel would be abundant and cheap. "'^ 

Simultaneously with this survey, was The Lackawan- 
nock and Susquehanna Railroad — -or the " Meredith 
Road," as it long was known — running up the Lacka- 
wanna to that bold loop in the Susquehanna at the Bend, 
a distance of forty-seven and a half miles from the mouth 
of Leggett's Creek, in Providence — undertaken by the 
late James Seymour, although it was chartered in 
March, 1826. Near Providence these two roads were 
to intersect, and the Meredith one, like its mate, running 
eastward, was to operate with seven inclined planes in a 
similar manner. 

The report of the Commissioners, although it present- 
ed the subject in its most attractive aspect, failed to 
excite the attention it demanded or deserved. Men 
reputed to be wise and reliable read it, and soon dis- 
missed it from their minds as treating of a scheme 
unworthy of notice. Those who had seen the valley 
when the moose and the deer, sweeping along its sides, 
were thought to be its only inheritance, and who had 
sought to give the country nurture from its virgin 
breast, were looked upon as feeble and foolish ones. 

The few sanguine spirits who appreciated the coming 
usefulness of the road, were not, however, dismayed. 

* Commissioners' Report of the route, 1832. 



HISTORICAL SUMMARY OF RAILROAD CO's. 315 

In the spring of 1832, a sufficient amount of stock having 
been taken through the agency of Henry W. Drinker 
and "William Henry, the Company was organized : 
Drinker being elected President, John Jordon, Jr., Se- 
cretary, and Henry, Treasurer. At a subsequent meet- 
ing of the stockholders, the President and Treasurer 
were constituted a financial committee to raise means to 
make the road, by selling stock, issuing bonds, or by 
hypothecating the road, etc. The engineer's map, the 
Commissioners' report, newspaper articles, were dis- 
tributed freely, and every honest expedient employed to 
make known the happy influence upon every surround- 
ing interest by the building of this road. 

Shadowed so deeply in the forest of Pennsylvania as 
was the Lackawanna Yalley, known in 'New York City 
only by the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, 
which had been in operation only four years, up to this 
time neither Drinker's nor Meredith's charter were 
looked on without suspicion. 

The times were too unripe for the road. To render 
the scheme, however, more comprehensive and general 
in its character, and make more certain the building of 
the Drinker Railroad, a continuous route was explored 
for a gravity railroad, ''from a point in Cobb's Gap, 
where an intersection or connection can be conveniently 
formed with the Susquehanna and Delaware Railroad, in 
Luzerne county," up through Leggett's Gap, and running 
in a northwesterly direction to the State of New York. 

This was the Leggett's Gap Railroad, an inclined plane 
road which, when completed, was expected to receive 
the trade along the fertile plains of the Susquehanna, 
Chenango and the Chemung, now enjoyed so profitably 
by the New York and Erie Railroad. 



316 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

H. W. Drinker, Dr. A. Bedford, Elisha S. Potter, N. 
Cottrill, and T. Smith, were among the original Com- 
missioners. 

Public meetings were now called bj the friends of 
the Drinker road, at the old Exchange in Wall street, 
l^ew York, to obtain subscriptions to the stock of the 
Company, and, while many persons acknowledged the 
enterprise to be a matter of more than common interest 
to the country generally, as it promised when com- 
pleted, to furnish a supply of coal from the coal hills of 
Luzerne county, a county where thousands of millions 
of tons of the best anthracite coal could be mined from 
a region of more than thirty-three miles in length, and 
averaging more than two miles in width, underlaid with 
coal probably averaging fifty feet in thickness, and be- 
sides this, unlike most other mining portions of the 
world, it abounded in agricultural fertility. 

While all these facts were conceded, they produced 
no other eflfect than the finding of several capitalists 
whose favorable opinions buoyed up the hope that final 
success would triumph. In Morristown, l!^ewton, Bel- 
videre, ^N'ewark, and other places in New Jersey, and at 
Easton, Stroudsburg, Dunmore and Kingston, in Penn- 
sylvania, meetings were called, to draw the attention of 
the public mind, and enlist the requisite means to open 
this highway through the rugged wilderness, where the 
wolf, with his grey eye, as he sat crouched in the swamp, 
bestowed as friendly a glance upon the project as capi- 
talists generally were inclined to do. Every sanguine 
hope, every flattering promise, passed away like an idle 
shadow. Engagements were at length made with ISTew 
York capitalists, which renewed and excited every rea- 
sonable expectation, they agreed to carry the matter for- 



HISTORICAL SUMMAEY OF EAILEOAD CO's. 317 

ward, provided that Drinker and his friends would 
obtain a charter for a continuous line of gravity rail- 
road up the Susquehanna, from Pittston to the New 
York State line. In 1833, a perpetual charter for such 
a road was obtained by their agency, and the first in- 
stallment of five dollars was paid, according to the act of 
Assembly. In itself it was considered, that in connec- 
tion with other roads, at or near the Delaware Water- 
Gap to New York city, it would be with its terminus at 
Jersey city eastwardly, and the State line near Athens, 
in Pennsylvania, westward, the shortest, and the best line, 
the natural avenues indicated from Kew York west ; it 
was shown by the official report of a survey made in 1827, 
by John Bennett, of Kingston, Pennsylvania, that the 
distance from the mouth of the Lackawanna of eighty- 
six miles, had but two hundred and fourteen feet fall, or 
about two and a half feet per mile, the acclivity for the 
whole distance being in general nearly equal, and 
beyond this to the city of Elmira, at about the same 
grade. 

Their New York partners having full faith in the re- 
alization of so splendid a project as that of having, with 
them the entire control of a line reaching the same point 
on the New York and Erie Kaih'oad line (as laid down by 
Judge Wright, C. E., but on which nothing yet had 
been done), at a distance of eighty-one miles short of 
this line, while running through both the anthracite and 
bituminous coal districts, and upon grades much easier, 
were greatly encouraged to hope for success ; several 
sections in the " Susquehanna Railroad " law, were by 
supplements, so amended and supplied in accordance 
to the wishes of their New York friends, as to cheer and 
aid the hopes of the long toiling ones. 



318 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

In October, 1835, the services of Doctor George 
Green, of Belvidere, who was a friend of this improve- 
ment, and who originated the " Belvidere Delaware Kail- 
road, " were procured. William Henry's note, endorsed 
by H. W. Drinker, accepted and endorsed by the cashier 
of the "Elizabethtown Bank " as " good," was taken by 
the doctor to the Wilkes Barre Bank as a deposit and 
payment in compliance with the law called the " Sus- 
quehanna Kailroad " act of Assembly of 1833. 

In consequence of the commercial embarrassments, 
which spread their gloomy and crushing influences 
throughout the country, in 1835 and 1836, the parties 
in New York interested in the road became so utterly 
prostrated as to need assistance themselves, instead of 
being able to render any to the railroad. Other parties 
being broken up by insolvency or death, it again seemed 
as if all the anxieties and labors of years must prove 
abortive. 

Ten years had thus rolled away, without a single rail 
having been laid upon this road, although many por- 
tions of it had been cleared of trees, and a few points 
had been graded, when a simple circumstance enlivened 
the hopes of the desponding board of directors. 

In 1836, there was travelling in the United States an 
English nobleman, named Sir Charles Augustus Murray, 
who, learning the important character of this road, from 
one of his friends, became interested in its success. A 
correspondence ensued, which led to a meeting of the 
friends of the project, at Easton, June 18, 1836, Mr. 
Drinker and Mr. Henry on the part of the Railroad 
Company, and Mr. Armstrong of 'New York, Mr. C. A. 
Murray, and William F. Clemson, of New Jersey, wrote 
out articles of association ; the Eailroad Committee fully 



HISTOEICAL SUMMARY OF KAILKOAD CO's. 319 

authorized Mr. Murray to raise, as he proposed to do, 
100,000 pounds sterling, in England, conditional that the 
Company should raise the means to make a beginning 
of the work. Mr. Henry accompanied him to New 
York, and furnished him with the power of Attorney, 
under seal expressly made for the purpose, and on the 
eighth of August, 1836, Mr. Murray sailed for Europe. 
Mr. Henry at once met and made arrangements with 
the Morris Canal. Board of Directors to raise $150,000 
on stock subscriptions to commence the road, but before 
these arrangements had been of any advantage to the 
Railroad Company, discouraging news came from Eng- 
land. Mr. Murray, in the month of December informed 
the Company that the monetary concerns of Europe 
were so paralyzed, that he could do nothing for their in- 
terests. 

To this meeting, which lasted three days in the rural 
town of Easton, can be traced the starting-point of Yul- 
can's works in Slocum Hollow, whose wide operations 
and varied influences have inspired with life a valley 
once obscure and lost.* 

The first Iron Works in Scranton, were erected in 
1810. In the summer of 1812, after iron was satisfac- 
torily made in small quantities, the directors of the 
railroad had a yearly meeting, and as Drinker and 
Henry both had invested years of toil to interest capi- 
talists in a scheme, whose comprehension was in ad- 
vance of their day, it was thought best to await the 
developments in the iron and coal interests in the 
valley. 

The want, however, of a better communication with 
the sea-board, than the slow mule team or the sluggish 

* See History of Slocum Hollow. 



320 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

waters of the canal, manifested itself so urgently to the 
makers of iron at Scranton, that Col. Geo. W. Scranton 
conceived the idea, in 1847, of opening a communica- 
tion northward to the lake county, by a locomotive 
instead of a gravity railroad, which Drinker's, Mere- 
dith's, and the Leggett's Gap Railroad charter contem- 
plated. 

The charter of this last named company, passed into 
the hands of the "Scranton Company;" a survey was 
made in 1849, and in 1850 the road commenced. 

In April, 1849, " The Delaware and Cobb's Gap Rail- 
road Company " — a road to run from the Delaware 
"Water Gap, to some point on the Lackawanna near 
Cobb's Gap — -was incorporated. The commissioners 
were Moses W. Coolbaugh, S. W. Schoonmaker, 
Thomas Grattan, H. M. Lebar, A. Overfield, J. Place, 
Benjamin Y. Bush, Alpheus Hollister, Samuel Taylor, 
F. Starburd, James H. Stroud, R. Bingham, and W. 
l^jce. The first meeting of the commissioners was held 
at Stroudsburg, December 26th, 1850, when Col. Geo. 
W. Scranton was chosen president. 

The northern division of the " Lackawanna and West- 
ern Railroad Company" was opened for business in 
October, 1851. 

A union with the " Cobb's Gap Railroad Company 
was effected at this time, so that nothing Avas wanting 
to carry out the original plan of the Colonel, of connect- 
ing the iron-works at Harrison with the city of ISTew 
York, but the necessary means, as the route was then 
being surveyed and adopted. 

Li 1853, the Railroad Company purchased of H. 
Drinker, Esq., his charter, for the sum of $1,000. 

As one of the Committee, and as its aged parent, it 



THE LACKAWANNA AND BLOOMSBUKG RAILROAD. 321 

bad after all its reverses and blasted bopes, been com- 
mitted to bim. 

A joint application was at tbis time made by tbe 
''Delaware and Cobb's Gap Railroad Company," and 
tbe "Lackawanna and Western Eailroad Company," 
for an act of tbe Legislature for tbeir consolidation; 
wbicb was granted Marcb 11, 1853, and tbe union con- 
summated, under tbe present name of " Tbe Delaware, 
Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company." 

Of tbis consolidated road Col. George W. Scranton 
was elected President ; and bow well be filled tbis posi- 
tion until compelled to excbange it for tbe invalid's 
sbelf, let tbe satisfactory adjustment of tbe many con- 
flicting interests ; tbe liberal, comprebensive spirit of 
bis administration ; tbe progress and tbe completion of 
tbis artery, now pulsating eastward and westward along 
tbe iron-patbway, from tbe Lackawanna Valley, and 
tbe confidence witb wbicb bis address was able to 
inspire capitalists, so tbat be could 7'aise the money to 
do it — let tbem all attest. 

Jobn Brisbin is tbe present Superintendent. 



THE LACKAWANNA AND BL00M8BURG RAILROAD. 

After tbe locomotive railroad from tbe Lackawanna 
Valley bad become a fixed fact by tbe genial efforts of 
tbose to wbom its failure or its success bad been intrusted 
otber roads began to spring into a cbarter being 
Among sucb, was tbe Lackawanna and Bloomsburg 
Railroad. An act incorporating tbis Company was 
passed in April, 1852, but until some valuable and essen- 
tial amendments were obtained for tbe cbarter tbe next 

14* 



322 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

year, by the able efforts of one of the members of the 
Pennsylvania Legislature — Hon. A. B. Dunning — did it 
possess any available vitality. This road is fifty-seven 
miles long, running from Scranton to Rupert, and, 
passes through the historic valley of Wyoming, where 
the poet Campbell drew, in his Gertrude, such pictures 
of the beautiful and wild. It also passes along the bus- 
quehanna, over a portion of the old battle-ground, where, 
in 1778, a small band of settlers marched forth from 
Forty Fort, in the afternoon, to fight the spoilers of their 
fire-sides, and where after the battle, the long strings 
of scalps dripping from the Indian belts, and the hatch- 
ets reddened with the slain, told how sorely was the 
rout, and how terrible the massacre which followed. 
The dweller in wigwams has bid a long farewell to a 
region so full of song and legend, and where can be 
found the one to-day who, as he looks over the old plan- 
tation of the Indian ISTations, once holding their great 
council fires here, upon tlie edge of the delightful river^ 
surrounded by forest and its inclosing mountain, can 
wonder that they fought as fights the wild-man with 
war-club and tomahawk, to regain the ancient plains of 
their fathers ? 

Wyoming Yalley, taken as a whole, compensates in 
the highest degree for the trouble of visiting i^. The 
grand beauty of the old Susquehanna, and the dark cur- 
rent of its sluggish waters, nowhere along its entire dis- 
tance appears to better advantage than it does here. 
Where along the Po or the Rhine, loom up the grey 
walls of some dismantled castles stained with the blood 
of centuries, here lies upon the Wyoming flats, rural 
and sociable evidences of prosperous life with none of 
its eastern mockeries. 



THE LACKAWANNA AND BLOOMSBUKG RAILROAD. 323 

The tourist who wishes to visit this truly interesting 
valley, can step into one of the cars of the Lackawanna 
and Bloorasburg Railroad Company at Scranton, and 
in twenty minutes look " on Susquehanna's side, fair 
"Wyoming !" Across the river, nearly at the head of 
the valley, is seen the battle-ground. About three miles 
below Pittston, a little to the left of the railroad, rises 
up from the plain a naked monument — an obelisk of 
grey masonry sixty-two and a half feet high, which com- 
memorates the disastrous afternoon of the third of July, 
1778. JSTear this point, reposes the bloody rock around 
which, on the evening of that day, was formed the fatal 
ring, and where the Indian Queen of the Senecas, with 
her death-maul and battle-axe, dashed out the brains of 
the captives. The debris oi Forty Fort, the first fort 
built on the north side of the Susquehanna by the Con- 
necticut emigrants in 1769, is found a short distance from 
the rock. 

This road, while it is a valuable tributary to the De- 
laware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, and forms, 
an intermediate link so important to northern and cen- 
tral Pennsylvania, also possesses many local advantages 
of its own. Above Pittston, eight collieries, having a 
yearly yielding capacity of 750,000 tons of coal, lie 
upon this road, while below twelve mines of coal, capa- 
ble of furnishing each year almost a million of tons of 
anthracite, must find a market only by the aid of this 
iron path-way. 

In three counties alone, along the line, are fourteen 
iron furnaces in the very midst of the richest fields of 
ore, besides many iron mills at Danville, a little distance 
below the southern terminus of the road. We know of 
no railroad in the country, lined with scenery, which 
would better repay the visit of a few days in summer or 



324 LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 

autumn, than will this. It is, in fact, all picturesque, 
while portions of it are really magnificent. Thundering 
along the border of the river and canal, at a rate of 
thirty miles an hour, a glimpse is now caught and then 
lost, of old grey mountain crags and glens, covered with 
forest just as it grew — of sleepy islands, dreaming in the 
half-pausing stream — of long, narrow meadows, stretched 
along with sights of verdure and sounds of life, and 
now and then a light cascade, tuned by the late rains, 
comes leaping down rock after rock, like a ribbon float- 
ing in the air I How the waters whiten as they come 
through the tree-tops with silver shout from precipice 
to precipice in the bosom of some rock, cool and fair 
lipped ! The scenery is especially grand at iN'anticoke 
• — the once wild camp place of the Nanticokes — where 
Wyoming Yalley terminates, and where the noble river, 
wrapped up in the majesty of mountains, glides along 
as languidly as when the red-man shot along its dark- 
ened waters upon his birchen wing. This road, under 
the immediate supervision of its efficient Superintendent, 
A. N. Kogers, promises to be as successful in its opera- 
tions and as remunerative to the stockholders, as it al- 
ready is acknowledged to be beneficial to the public 
generally. Wm. C. Eeynolds is the President of the 
road ; H. 0. Silkman, Assistant Engineer. 



THE LACKAWANNA AND LANESBOKOUGH KAILKOAD. 

As early as February 6th, 1817, an act was passed to 
incorporate a Company " for improving the navigation 
of the Lackawanna Creek," but the act and the Com- 
pany perished in their birth. Drinker's charter for his 
railroad was obtained in April, 1826. A few days pre- 



LACKAWANNA AND LANBSBOKOUGH BAILEOAD. 



325 



vious to this, however, was the " Lackawaunock and 
Susquehanna Eaih-oad "-or the Meredith road-char- 
tered. After its survey, in May, 1831, but little energy 
or ability was bestowed on the project, so nothing what- 
ever was done with it, except to infuse a little animation 
by supplements now and then, thrown into its expiring 
years. The road was to be a gravity one, and to run 
from the moath of Leggett's Creek in Providence to the 
bend in the Susquehanna. This road was conceived 
more in a spirit of opposition to the Delaware and Hud- 
son Canal Company than to promote the interests ot the 
Lackawanna Valley. _ 

The Legislature of Pennsylvania, m February, 1849, 
granted a charter to the " Lackawanna and Lanesborough 
Eailroad Company," a Company which almost over the 
neo-lected route of Meredith, contemplated to bmld a 
loc'omotive road. Connecting with the Lackawanna and 
Bloomsburg at Hyde Park, it is to extend to the mouth 
of Starucca Creek about one mile north of Lanesborough 
and pass alongside of the imposing Starucca Viaduct ol 
the New York and Erie Eailroad. Eegardmg Oswego 
as the most important key to Canada and all the coun- 
try bounding the five great lakes, this road expects to 
enioy the advantages of the market for anthracite coal, 
not only at this point, but at Albany and along the 
Mohawk and upper waters of the Hudson. Unlike all 
other roads entering the valley, this one possesses neither 
mines nor mining privileges, although it passes twenty- 
two miles along the great coal hasin ; it simply will 
rely on the carrying business alone. It is 53i miles in 
length, with an easy grade. Following the eastern slope 
of the Lackawanna for a distance of about ^'rty-six 
miles, up to the very head of the stream and about 
2 040 feet above tide water, it passes along the villages 



326 



LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 



of Hyde Park, Providence, Blakely, Archibald, Bacon- 
ville (Carbondale lies three quarters of a mile east of 
the road), Eho, and Starucca village. 

The route has been surveyed and located, and should 
the road be built as there is every reason to hope it 
may, will not only enhance property along the entire 
valley, but suj)ply, at a reasonable rate, southern, cen- 
tral, and even northern 'New York with the best of an- 
thracite coal. John C. Trautwine is the Civil Engineer 
of the road. 



LIST OF COAL OPEKATOKS AT, OK PREPAEINa FOR WORK, 

1857. 



Some general idea of coal operations in the great 
Lackawanna coal-basin can be had by the following 
table, furnished the writer by the politeness of Mr. 
Wm. Needham, Mining Engineer, Scranton, as well as 
by the fact that over $12,000,000, most of which is New 
York capital, is invested in coal property in the valley : 





AMOUNT OP 
COAL SENT 
TO MARKET, 


HOW WORKED. 


Pennsylvania Coal Co., 1856 


Tons. 

612,500 

499,650 

305,530 

100,000 

60,417 

40,000 

35,000 


Slopes & Shafts 
SI. Sh. & Drifts 

u u u 

(( U (( 

u (( a 

Slope & Drift 
Shaft 


Delaware & Hudson Canal Co 


Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R.R, Co. 
Baltimore Coal Co 


Judson Clark* 


Wilkes Barre Coal Co 


Mordecai Diamond Colliery 



* About one mile northwest of Providence, the mountain opens with a 
rough majesty, forming a passage known as the " Notch," or " JVatches,'' 
occupied by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, a plank- 
road, and the white waters of Leggett's Creek. The gap is narrow, about 
one mile in length, and so walled with long, grey ledges of rock, swung 



LACKAWANNA COAL OPERATIONS. 



327 



Lee, Payne & Co 

Maryland Coal Co 

Sharps & Oliver 

Tompkins, Price & Co 

Pittston Coal Co 

Luzerne Coal Co.* , 

Boukley & Leysen , 

Mammouth Vein Coal Co , 

James Freeland , 

Mill Creek Coal Co 

New York & Pennsylvania Coal Co 

Howell & Brother 

Hartford Coal Co 

North Branch Coal Co 

Geneva Coal Co 

Nassau Coal Co 

John J. Shouk 

R. Hutchinson & Co 

Ravine Coal Co 

Junction Coal Co 

Thompson, Morgan & Co 

Erie & Susquehanna Coal Co 

Northampton Coal Co 

John Stanton & Co 

Wren & Brothers 

Jameson Harvey 

West Pittston Coal Co 

Scranton Coal Co 



AMOUNT OF 




COAL SENT 


HOW WORKED. 


TO MARKET. 




Tons. 




34,395 


Drift 


33,000 


(( 


32,000 


u 


30,000 


(( 


25,000 


(( 


21,722 


Slope & Drift 


20,000 


(i u 


20,000 


Drift 


20,000 


" 


14,000 


t( 


13,899 


Slope & Drift 


20,000 




12,000 


Slope & Shaft 


11,000 


Shaft 


10,000 




10,000 


Drift 


6,500 




6,500 


Shaft 


3,000 


Slope & Shaft 


400 


Drift 


300 




None 






Drift 


u 


Shaft 


u 


Drift 



out almost over your head, as to render a glance at them anything but 
tedious. Save the dull, slow, then the thick, rapid drumming of the part- 
ridge upon a rotten log, or the girlish romp of the brook leaping along 
the gorge, or doing the drudgery of a neighboring saw-mill, all was silence 
here until the works of Mr. Clark commenced. His are upon a safe and 
remunerating principle, and the coal he mines at this point, like all mined 
by other companies in the vicinity, is delivered in merchantable order to 
the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company. Mr. Clark was 
the ^rs^ individual, after Wm. Wurts, to send coal from the Lackawanna 
VaUey. 

* This Company, with a capital of $225,000, and with a growth of only 
two years, has established for itself a character, by the prompt and pru- 



328 



LACKAWANNA VALLEY. 





AMOUNT OP 
COAL SENT 
TO MARKET. 


HOW WORKED. 


New York & Scranton Coal Co 


Tons. 

None 
(( 


Shaft 

Drift & Shaft 

Drift 

(( 

u 

Shaft 
Drift 
Shaft 

Drift 
Drift & Slope 

Shaft 
Drift & Shaft 

Shaft 
i( 

Drift 


Scranton Anthracite Coal Co 


Hanover Coal Co 

Pennsylvania Anthracite Coal Co 

National Anthracite Coal Co. (Capt. Lewis 
Carr, Manager) 


Hyde Park Coal Co. 


Union Iron and Coal Co. (works burned 
June, 1857) 


Lackawanna Coal and Iron Co 


Spring Brook Coal Co 


New York & Pittston Coal Co 


Fellows' Coal Co 


Luzerne Anthracite Coal Co 


G. H. Coursen 


Excelsior Coal Co 


Van Stork Coal Co 


Lackawanna Railroad and Coal Co 

Stevenson & Co 


New York & Lackawanna Coal Co 

Tinklepaugh Coal Co 


Simpson, Eaton & Westcott. (Now deliver- 
ing 200 tons per day at Archibald) 



dent management of its affairs, equal to any in the country. On the road 
leading from Providence to Abington, and contiguous to those of Clark's, 
their mines are located. By the curious and ingenious application of 
steam power and planes, the cars are drawn from midnight holes in the 
earth loaded with coal, up to the top of their great coal cracker, operated 
by steam ; and after it is cracked in the iron teeth of the works, with as 
much ease as the beech-nut crumbles in the squirrel's mouth, it falls ready 
sorted and screened into the cars of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western 
Railroad Company, ready for transportation. B. F. Sawyer, Jr., is the 
soul and principal of the concern. 



THE END, 



H 36 79 







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u^^"^ 

v*-^ 









NOV 78 

N. MANCHESTER, 
INDIANA 46962 






3^". "-^-0^' .' 





